The torn denim swung lazily in the wind and left a gaping hole where there once had been a back pocket revealing light gray boxer briefs.\n"There's my hiney," said BloomingKids mentor and IU senior Matt McGovren, examining the sudden change to his faded jeans as his "little buddy" Jared, a second grader, laughed uncontrollably.\nIt was a piggyback ride gone wrong -- a foot unknowingly placed on a small tear, creating a chaotic end to a chaotic afternoon.\nEvery week, McGovren and 59 other IU students take two hours to participate in BloomingKids, a program that provides "at risk" elementary students within the Monroe County school system with an afterschool mentoring opportunity that will ideally increase the students' chances of attending college while giving the mentors a chance to connect with a child. But with all of the program's self-proclaimed success, it shows no sign of expanding anytime soon.\nThe program targets an age of kids previously unrecognized by mentor programs. Head Start focuses on preschoolers, and Big Brothers Big Sisters is geared toward junior high students, leaving a hole for BloomingKids to fill.\nBloomingKids, founded in 1996 at IU, was the first chapter of its parent program, College Mentors For Kids! Now CMFK! has twelve chapters across the state.\n"I think it's fun," McGovren said, "just because (the kids) are so goofy. They have a lot of energy."\nA study conducted by the Nellie Mae Education Foundation with students in grades three through five showed students who had participated in a mentoring program had higher attendance at school, better work ethics within the classroom and had fewer behavioral problems over the course of a year. \nKathy Byers, director of the bachelor of social work program in the School of Social Work, agrees with the Nellie Mae study.\n"They are positive because the mentor is demonstrating an interest in the child and acting as a positive role model," she said.\nThe Afterschool Alliance, a Washington-based organization, surveyed 800 registered voters from across the country. Ninety-one percent said they wanted more afterschool programs offered by communities. And Bloomington is no exception.\nParents are aware when their children may be susceptible to "at risk" behaviors and often seek out the program, said Kelly Frank, the executive director of CMFK! Still, students are selected for CMFK! by school coordinators. \n"My one criteria is that the program serves children who would not be exposed to higher education," Frank said.\nFrank added that 325 potential mentors attended a mentor callout meeting, but only 60 are accepted into the program. One reason for the program's popularity is that it was conceived with college students in mind. The program was designed for volunteers with no car, no money and no time.\nAfter McGovren attended a mentor call-out meeting his freshman year, he had to wait a year to receive a mentor position. During that year, McGovren worked with the program's fundraising committee to better his chances of becoming a mentor his sophomore year.\nFrank said the national cost for programs similar to BloomingKids is around $1,030 per child, but CMFK! provides the program with only $560 per child. The mentors also participate in numerous fundraisers and raise money in partnership with other student organizations.\nBut sometimes the money raised isn't enough. When McGovren wanted to take his group bowling, BloomingKids vetoed the idea, saying it would cost too much. After McGovren couldn't get the bowling alley to give the group a discount, he asked all of his fraternity brothers in Phi Kappa Psi to donate $1 to pay for the group to bowl. Because of McGovren's quick thinking, BloomingKids was able to bowl.\n"A lot of people don't do (BloomingKids) or wouldn't do it," McGovren said. "But they think it's cool."\nMcGovren also got his fraternity involved in the program when he took his group on a tour of his house, fulfilling "campus life," one of the three areas BloomingKids tries to expose the children to each week. The other two are cultural diversity and community service.
Big buddies with big hearts\nEach week, the students travel by bus to campus to spend time focusing on those areas with their mentors. At 3:30 p.m., the kids tumble off the bus, and from the moment the last foot leaves the bus steps, pandemonium ensues.\n"Hey, Jared," said McGovren, watching his little buddy pick up a stick longer than his body and chase after another kid, "put the stick down."\nJared is a teenage heartbreak waiting to happen, complete with big brown eyes and a playful smile. With a mischievous grin, Jared throws down the stick and slides down a railing backward. McGovren sighs.\n"With him, it's trying to pick the battles I want to argue about," he said. "I just let him go as long as he's not bothering another group. I think that's probably the hardest part, trying to let him have a whole lot of fun but without getting out of control."\nThis was McGovren's second year with Jared. Last year, they were paired randomly. McGovren said at first Jared was shy, but as he got more comfortable with the program, he got out of control.\nBut while Jared is a kid of many actions, he is one of few words.\n"He's not very talkative," McGovren said. "It's hard to get him to talk about what he's done or what he thinks."\nAfter spending two hours a week together for over a year, Jared had this, and only this, to say about McGovren:\n"He's nice." \nOthers who are aware of McGovren's involvement in BloomingKids are slightly more verbose. Junior David Angelucci, McGovren's fraternity brother, has known him since their freshman year when they lived on the same floor of Teter Wissler. Angelucci said he isn't surprised about McGovren's commitment to BloomingKids.\nHe's always looking to do something for someone else," Angelucci said. "He's basically a kid himself."\nAlthough McGovren said he thinks he hasn't connected as much with Jared as other mentors have with their little buddies, the attachment between the two is obvious.\n"This year, on the first day, when we went to the schools, when I came in, he was spinning around in circles and hitting the guy next to him, pointing at me," McGovren said.\nAngelucci also sees the attachment. He said McGovren comes home sad sometimes, like the day Jared was asked if he could do anything in the world, what he would do. Jared answered he would ride his bike, if he had one.\n"I think (McGovren) is going to try and get a used bike for him for Christmas," Angelucci said.\nMcGovren never got the chance to get Jared that Christmas bike, however, because Jared moved away two weeks before the end of the fall semester. McGovren began cultivating a relationship with Tre, his new little buddy, in January.\nJared and Tre are as different as night and day. The day McGovren and Tre went to visit Swain West to learn about how the eye works, it was drizzling and the bus was late. When Tre jumps off the bottom step of the bus, he makes a move to splash in an inviting puddle.\n"Don't step in that puddle!" McGovren said.\nTre stops just short of the puddle.\n"Jared would have jumped right in," McGovren said.\nByers said attachment between mentors and children is common, especially with a pair who had been together as long as McGovren and Jared.\n"It takes a while to develop a trusting relationship," she said. "These kids are not always quick to trust. You must prove yourself."
Gaining ground\nAll of the positive feedback has caught the attention of other schools that want to start similar programs with CMFK! Erin Slater, program director for CMFK!, has been contacted for both national and international expansion but said the program isn't ready for development outside of the state yet.\n"We are committed to ensuring that our Indiana chapters are secure before pursuing national expansion," Slater said. "However, someday we will serve children outside of Indiana."\nOne reason CMFK! is waiting is because it wants to see a measurable effect on its participants. Right now, the first group of BloomingKids has not even graduated high school. Frank said the program is looking into a longitudinal study that will measure the programs effects.\nHowever, the group is making sure it is doing everything possible to make sure its students reach higher education. While the kids are in the program, they are put on the wait list for the Big Brothers Big Sisters program so they can move directly from one to the next. In high school, the kids are put on the 21st Century Scholars program, and if that is completed, they are offered tuition at IU. \nByers said one of the advantages of a mentoring program is that mentors benefit too because people don't volunteer unless they get something out of it.\n"People like to reach out and know that simple things make a difference," she said. "It's pretty gratifying to do volunteer work you can see. And you can see, for example, the excitement of a child jumping into a pile of leaves."\n-- Contact staff writer Kathleen Quilligan at kquillig@indiana.edu.
