Team Up Mentoring

Summertime means enjoying the great outdoors, and that's exactly what the Team Up mentor/mentee matches did during their monthly outing. The group traveled to Triple R Ranch in Chesapeake for a fun challenge course. The series of tasks, such as a wall climb, zip line and low and high ropes exercise, brought out the best in the children, teaching them how to problem solve, overcome their individual fears and work together as a team. A big thanks goes to Rob Marchand of The Up Center's Board of Directors for participating and suggesting such an engaging activity!

Team Up hosts monthly group activities for matches, which helps to instill trusting relationships. As a mentor, you can be this positive role model and impact a life.

Pictured above: Rob Marchand lends a helping hand to his mentee, Dontrel, during a tough wall climb.

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Dennis Jones

For more than a year, 11-year Dennis  Jones has been paired with

Navy Pilot Luke Rice & his wife Aimee through The Up Center’s Team Up Mentoring program.

The couple serves as role models for Dennis, who is an only child and has an incarcerated father. In the Team Up program, most youth like Dennis are matched with one adult for at least a year. In this case though, Luke and Aimee Rice wanted to mentor as a family, including their three year old son.

The unusual arrangement has paid off. Dennis’ mother says her son is doing much better academically in school since Luke has emphasized the importance of education. Dennis also is experiencing many new things, including tours of the base and time spent in the flight simulator. The result has been a very successful mentoring match that has changed two families.

“We’ve told Dennis he can be a part of our lives as long as he wants to be,” Aimee Rice said. “He is just a fantastic kid.”