Representatives of the SMILES (Southcoast Mentoring Initiative for Learning, Education and Service) mentoring program invited prospective mentors to the Fall River Public Library Community Room on August 28, 2008, to learn about the program. The goal of the campaign, chaired by Fall River Mayor Robert Correia, is to recruit volunteer mentors for two new literacy-based SMILES mentoring programs for first-grade students. The programs will begin in October at the Doran and Greene elementary schools. Volunteers who sign up as mentors will spend an hour a week in an elementary school where they will read short stories and books with a first-grade student who presently reads below grade level. “Our goal is to place mentors with kids who need help at learning how to read”, said SMILES executive director Jim Mathes.  “We will be working closely with the teachers and reading coaches in the school, and will be using reading materials provided by the school.” SMILES, pioneered by Jim Mathes, has recruited over five hundred volunteer mentors in 26 programs in Fall River, New Bedford and Wareham.  Click here to see photos of the press announcement. For more information about the program, contact (508) 999-9300 or e-mail Nicole Almeida at nalmeida@smilesmentoring.org.

(Top row, left) SMILES executive director Jim Mathes greets attendees with former Lincoln School Principal Barbara Terrio who will be the program facilitator. (Top row, center and right) Smiles staff Marie-Frances Rivera and Michele Emery welcome registrants Karen Toulan and Board Member Mike McDonald. (Middle row, left) SMILES executive director Jim Mathes describes the program. (Middle row, right) Mayor Robert Correia, who serves as honorary chair of the initiative, underscores the important role that mentors play in children's lives. (Bottom row, left) Retired aetna worker Jeanne Woodward and retired Title I teacher Connie Daviau enjoy the presentation. (Bottom row, center) Fall River school superintendent Nickolas Fischer, a member of the SMILES Board of Directors and himself a mentor, talks about the important people in his education. (Bottom row, right) School principals Janice Heaney, Tara Gagnon, Vivian Kuss and Maria Pontes introduce themselves.