Submitted by Ray Galloway
(January 11, 2026) — As representatives of the Haddam/Killingworth Mentoring Program (HKMP) we invite you, as members of the Haddam/Killingworth communities, to join us during January (National Mentoring Month) to acknowledge and thank our volunteer Mentors. You may have a friend or acquaintance who is mentoring a student attending a Region 17 school. Please connect with your friend this month and let the person know that their support for a child is appreciated and valued.
We want to take advantage of this opportunity to applaud our Mentors as well as provide our neighbors in Haddam, Killingworth and nearby towns, with information about the HKMP. Perhaps, you will decide after reading this article, that Mentoring a student is in your future!
The HKMP is comprised of adult volunteers who are matched with students attending Region 17 schools and who might benefit from having a caring, responsible adult in their lives. The prospective Mentor is a volunteer who has made application and agreed to participate in a formalized training program, has completed an interview, and agreed to a formal background check. A Mentor is a friend, trusted adult, positive role model, good listener, kind and caring person, and advocate. Mentors meet with their Mentees in school once per week for about an hour. The get-togethers are intended to be enjoyable, supportive, and dependable.
Students are nominated for the program by Region 17 professional staff. Children who have participated in formalized Mentoring Programs have frequently been shown to increase their self-esteem, improve school attendance, improve relationships with adults and peers, and increase school engagement.
If you have an interest in becoming a Mentor and potentially having a beneficial, life-long impact on a child, please consider becoming a Mentor for the HKMP. There are presently students in our schools hoping that some adults in our community will have time to be their adult friend and to support them as they face the challenges of growing up and, equally important, have some fun in the process.
Should you want to learn more about HKMP, please contact Ms. Patty Coletti, Program Coordinator, at her email address, mentorprogram@hkyfs.org, or phone her at 860-345-7498. She will be convening informational meetings for prospective mentors during the coming weeks. As a reminder, please take a moment to “Thank a Mentor.”
“Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider these people my heroes.”
—–Mr. Fred Rogers
