February 24, 2014 at 4:35 p.m.
All for a good cause: Hearty souls take the plunge to support Kinship
All for a good cause: Hearty souls take the plunge to support Kinship
Kinship is a mentoring program that pairs up kids who need a good role model with an adult or group of adults that fit the mold.
"We're a non-profit youth mentoring organization. We match adults - individuals, couples or families - with children ages five to 15 who, for a variety of reasons, just need a good role model, a positive person in their life," said executive director Patti Hilgendorf.
The proceeds from Saturday's event will go toward supporting the mentoring program as well as a new program called KinsKlub.
"It's all going to go toward our matchmaking efforts as well as our new KinsKlub program," Hilgendorf said. "About two years ago we started a KinsKlub program that we do Tuesdays and Thursdays after school. We have a house that's our office that we rent and the kids come after school and they get help with homework. We bring in speakers and special programming, they get play time, snacks. We started that trying to get the kids that don't have mentors yet the opportunity to be around positive adults."
KinsKlub is needed because not everyone who wants a mentor has one yet, Hilgendorf explained. The group is always looking for new mentors, she added.
"We've got a bunch of wonderful volunteers and mentors. We've got 67 kids in the program right now and 47 of them have mentors," Hilgendorf said. "We always need mentors. Anyone who's interested can go on our website and check it out, or they can call our office for more info."
The group's website is www.kinshiptomahawk.org or they can be reached by phone at (715) 453-1910.
Hilgendorf said the support the group receives from the community cannot be put into words.
"It's all year long. Everything that we do, the community has been absolutely amazing for our program. We went from a little windowless office a couple years ago to a downtown storefront and now we're actually in a downtown house where the kids have a backyard to go out to play and a kitchen and things like that," Hilgendorf said. "The kids are getting some really good educational stuff thanks to it all. The program's been able to grow immensely and it's all because the community has been so great in supporting us."
As for the brave souls who took the plunge, they said supporting a good cause was well worth the icy bath.
"Yeah, it's cold, but you warm back up quickly. The cold doesn't last," said jumper Kayla Pearson. "The feeling of knowing that you just did something to help out those that need it, that's what lasts and that's what's important."
Marcus Nesemann may be reached at [email protected].
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