Mentors and mentees in the SMILES (Southcoast Mentoring Initiative for Learning, Education and Service) mentoring program (a program of People, Incorporated) in Fall River and New Bedford traveled to Boston on June 7, 2012for a Red Sox game against the Baltimore Orioles. The trip was part of a statewide event organized by Mass Mentors in which over sixty groups in Massachusetts were invited to participate. The group traveled by bus from the Matthew J. Kuss Middle School in Fall River to Fenway Park in Boston through rain showers that threatened to cancel the game. When the group got there, however, they enjoyed clear skies and a beautiful June evening to enjoy the game that the Red Sox took, seven to zero. "It was a great experience both for the mentors as well as the mentees, some of whom had never been to Boston," stated Heidi Bedard who, along with program director Katje Fuson, led the group. Weekly SMILES mentoring sessions are scheduled throughout the year to offer mentors and mentees the chance to get to know each other better and to form strong bonds designed to keep mentees invested in their schools. Click here for pictures the Kuss group earlier in the year. Click here for a   video of the trip. For more information about the program or to volunteer to serve as a mentor in other programs, call 774-627-2436 or email Katje Fuson at kfuson@smilesmentoring.org

(Top row) Mentor Catarina Bauer and her mentee, Tori, board the bus for Boston as Fall River SMILES coordinator Heidi Bedard and New Bedford SMILES coordinator Stephanie Silva give instructions to the group. (Middle row) The group arrives at Fenway Park for the game with the Baltimore Orioles, and Catarina takes a seat with hundres of other mentor-mentee pairs. (Bottom row) Fall River SMILES director Katje Fuson leads a cheer for the Red Sox, who won the game, 7-0, before posing with People, Incorporated CEO Robert Canuel in front of the group before returning to Fall River.