I would title this month’s corner as “not just a shameless plug.” You know when you read those articles that are really just a commercial dressed up like a story.

Well, if you want to stop reading now that is what this is.

Last weekend we had a regional TeamMates meeting in Grand Island. TeamMates has been a tremendously successful mentoring program for the past 30ish years, in large part because it was started by Coach Tom Osborne and his wife Nancy. As time has passed, TeamMates has continued to impact youth in Nebraska and most of the surrounding states, but the kids no longer know who Coach Osborne was.

So, the folks at TeamMates are working hard to do some rebranding and marketing to keep TeamMates relevant to kids and younger adults.

In Callaway we have a very active TeamMates chapter run by Mrs. Karen Weverka. Over 40 matches of mentors and mentees meet regularly. Fortunately, we have a large group of kids that want to be a part of TeamMates. Unfortunately, we struggle to find enough mentors, especially male mentors, to get all of our kids paired up. I think we battle the perception that only troubled kids need a mentor.

If a child has a good family, then it is unnecessary for them to have a mentor.

TeamMates is really pushing the idea that mentoring is for all kids and that everyone can benefit from the mentor/mentee relationship. So here is where my story, or my not so shameless plug begins.

When I was growing up there was a guy in Mullen named Club Wright. Club was a grumpy old guy who used to holler at the kids for being too loud when we played basketball in the lumber yard he ran. Club had a limp from the shrapnel of a German grenade from World War II in his leg. Club cussed too much and probably drank a little more than he should, but he also liked to play cribbage. As it turns out, I loved to play cribbage when I was a kid as well. I realize this was long before TeamMates was even a thought, and I was the kid who had a great family and was taught all the necessary lessons at home that would create the moral compass of my life. But my time playing cribbage with Club made a huge mark on my life.

Club has a little pocket note pad and he would tally when he won or when I would win. I am sure there were at least 500 tallies through the years in that little book that he kept just to track our little competition. While I thought I was just playing a game of cribbage I was learning about the things that Club thought were the most important in life. Hard work, honesty (to a fault sometimes), and service to your country and your community were the side effects of a simple card game.

I have asked myself many times in life if I have ever been some kid’s Club Wright? Are there any kids that gleaned lessons from being around me that they will take with them the rest of their life? So, Club didn’t go through any background checks (he probably wouldn’t have passed), and he didn’t sign a sheet at the office tracking when we met, but he was my TeamMate when I was a kid and I am glad I had him.

If you think that you have lessons to teach a child and about an hour a week to spend with them, please consider joining our mentoring team. Contact me or Karen at the school and we will help you with the process. Remember, you don’t have to be perfect you just have to be there, and all of our kids would benefit from a mentoring relationship!