Thursday, May 16th was the culminating event for the Operation Take Back Mentoring Program at Price Middle School. Over one hundred seventy three students (approximately 50% of the students) were mentored for the last eight weeks of the school year. The program was started as a result of an incident at Price and former alumni and community members have come together to work with our young people. Spearheaded by former alumni Derrick Boazman and Michael Langford, over sixty mentors have worked in groups with our students to help them do well in school, talk out problems, help with homework, and guide the students in making good decisions and helping to increase the students’ self-esteem.
The culminating event was held in the school’s cafetorium with students speaking and singing on the program. Special guest Ms. Bernice King, youngest daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, spoke to the students about her life experiences and how she was able to overcome difficult situations in her lifetime to become the person she is today. Senator Vincent Fort of Atlanta spoke with the students about the importance of making good decisions and staying in school and remained for students to ask him questions.
Students were recognized for their participation in the program, perfect attendance at all meetings, and other special recognitions. Many of the mentors were present to recognize their mentees and say goodbye for the summer. Students took pictures with their mentors and presented them with small tokens of appreciation.
Operation Take Back plans to begin again in August 2013 with the mentoring program and hopes to have enough volunteers for every student to have a mentor.
written by Tammy Rosado, Media Specialist at Price Middle School
