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Kinship celebrating milestone

FAIRMONT — On Wednesday, Fairmont Area Kinship will observe the one-year anniversary of the signing a special pact with Martin County.

The contract allowed the mentor and mentee matches of Martin County Mentoring to be pulled into Kinship, to better provide for the needs of those matched. Martin County Mentoring suffered because the director position was only part time, resulting in a lack of continuity for those involved.

Kinship director Anna Garbers and assistant director Katy Gonzalez offered a review of the past year, sharing the accomplishments and needs of the program.

“Right away after signing the contract, we really did a big push to meet with organizations in other communities,” Garbers said. “We met with groups like the Lions Club from Sherburn, the Fox Lake Conservation Club and different churches.”

In addition, a Kinship board member has been busy going to businesses throughout the county, attempting to work out agreements for Kinship’s Perks club, in which businesses give discounts to mentors and mentees.

“We really want to branch out, because right now all of our perks are in Fairmont,” Garbers said. “So for our matches in Trimont or Sherburn or Granada, it’d be nice to have some options for discounts in those small towns.”

“We’ve got a pretty big program, and we want to be balanced in everything that we’re doing,” Garbers said. “That means making sure that we are making an effort to reach out to and serve the entire county with mentoring, but also trying to improve our program and make sure that we’re supporting our matches.”

With so much on the agenda, it was clear to board members and others that Garbers would need some help. That turned out to be Gonzalez, a former part-time teacher from Blue Earth. Gonzalez brought along plenty of experience, having previously run Blue Earth Area Mentors.

“She has been a huge asset to the program,” Garbers said.

Garbers notes that one part of the contract with the county included a goal of having 33 percent of Kinship’s matches come from outside Fairmont city limits, and she is glad to announce that goal has been all but met.

“Right now we’re at 32 percent,” she said. “We’re pretty excited about that because, for a while, we were around 20 percent, but we’ve been getting mentors and mentees from some of the surrounding communities. We have 56 matches right now, and 38 of those are in Fairmont, and 18 of those are from the rest of Martin County.”

With so many success stories over the past year, it would be easy for the program to rest on its laurels. But even a cursory glance will show that Fairmont Area Kinship has no plans to slow down. Garbers and Gonzalez are excited to share some of their plans to continue the programs outreach and growth.

“Another thing we’ve been wanting to do is have more activities that are in places besides Fairmont,” Garbers said. “For instance, we’re hoping to do a painting class with one of the teachers from Martin County West.”

“We’re also planning to do a comic book superhero day at the park in Sherburn, soon after school gets out this summer. For that we’ll be partnering with Comics4Children, run by Mike Kuhlers. He visits and does care packages for kids, and he also did another superhero day at the Fairmont Aquatic Park, so we’re hoping to make a whole fun day out of it in June.”

Both women say they are overwhelmed at the support they have received from various organizations, businesses and communities has been amazing.

“The support from the county government has been really huge,” Garbers stated. “Kathy Smith is on our board of directors now, and she has helped with quite a few activities and her input is so important for how our organization runs.

“The ongoing support of the commissioners has been great. They’ve given us craft supplies, and have also donated for an upcoming silent auction at the Knights of Columbus Hall.”

The pair say they also are grateful for the financial support Kinship receives from donations and state funding, to local grants.

“We have people who are beyond generous, and it’s really mind blowing how great our consistent supporters have been. That has been important for supporting the time that goes into recruiting, training and preparing mentors.”

For all the success the organization has had, many needs still exist, especially when it comes to male mentors.

“We have a huge need,” Garbers said. “Right now, we have 16 kids on our waiting list, and only three of those are girls. We have boys waiting in Welcome, Trimont, Northrop, Truman and Fairmont, and that’s our biggest need going forward.”

“It’s hard too, when they sign up for the program,” Gonzalez said. “They think they’re going to get a mentor right away, but we have to tell them it could be a year before they get matched. If they’re in a situation where they need a mentor, that’s a lot of lost time to start building a friendship and things could be very different within a year.”

To find out how to get involved by becoming a mentor, a board member or a volunteer, or to make a donation or get more information about the program, contact Anna Garbers by phone at (507) 238-4440 (office) or (507) 236-4514 (cell), or email fairmontkinship@gmail.com

Kinship also has a Facebook page at www.facebook.com/fairmontareakinship

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