Making A Difference in Your Community : Students Get New Outlook From Mentors

Each week, two different worlds and generations meet over lunch, when Mark Gerin and his 15-year-old friend, Richard, sit down to eat.

Gerin, 64, a retired businessman who holds a Ph.D., lives in Woodland Hills, three miles from Taft High School. Richard lives with his mother, brother and five sisters on 41st Street, miles from the San Fernando Valley school. He wakes up at 5:30 a.m. to meet his bus.

The two make an unlikely pair. And that’s just the point.

They were introduced by the Each One-Reach One mentor program started last spring as a pilot project by the Los Angeles Unified School District. Mentors are paired with kindergarten through 12th-grade students at risk of dropping out of school or who just need someone to talk to, said Kathleen Kelly, the project manager.

“It’s nice for them to have the consistency of seeing someone who’s older and cares about them not because they’re paid to care but are coming on their own time,” Kelly said.

Because the program proved successful, Kelly said, the district is expanding it from six schools to 32, including eight in the Valley. The program, which now has 35 volunteers, needs 160.

Mentors are asked to meet students at their schools for an hour a week.

“They’re not expected to be a psychologist or a parent,” Kelly said. “It’s just these kids are looking to enhance their lives and ensure their futures and need support and inspiration.”

So when a suited Mark Gerin and soft-spoken Richard meet, there’s something more than soup and salad on their plates.

In sometimes awkward discussions, the two learn about each other’s lives and problems.

Gerin talks about growing up poor in Brooklyn. Richard talks of his mother’s car being stolen repeatedly and a break-in at his old house.

Richard’s eyes light up when Gerin tells him of the ride he took in a police helicopter. Gerin listens as Richard says his family will visit his ailing grandmother in Guadalajara but that he has to stay to attend school.

Sometimes, the discussion centers on the pair’s own relationship and expectations.

Recently, at a pastel-colored cafe, with Richard spooning soup and Gerin eating scrambled egg whites with goat cheese, Gerin asked why Richard wasn’t wearing clothes Gerin had bought. Richard wore an oversize shirt and baggy, black pants.

“They’re nice and everything but I just think it’s not me,” he said. “I’m just used to wearing these kind of clothes.”

Gerin persisted.

“I’ll do it, I’ll do it,” Richard said. Then he said softly: “It won’t be me.”

Later, Richard talked about his lunches with Gerin.

“He’s cool. He’s just like the big brother I never had or the father who never gave me advice,” he said. Richard’s real brother recently got out of juvenile detention hall, where he served time for graffiti tagging.

“He knows everything,” Richard said of Gerin. “He’s telling me what to do and what not to do and sometimes I don’t listen. That’s when I get in trouble.”

“Do I think it’s helping him?” Gerin asked after his lunch. “I don’t know. It’s still in the embryonic stage. Maybe in 10 years we’ll know if it helped him.”

Gerin hopes that Richard will see that, though Gerin grew up poor, he carved out a good life for himself and that Richard can strive for the same.

“Being very poor, I could have gone in either direction. Many of my friends ended up in jail or dead. I chose not to go that direction,” he said. “If I can get him to change his dress code, to me that’s a step in a particular direction. I think Richard has a long way to go but I think he’s capable of doing it. He’s a good person.”

To volunteer as a mentor, call Kelly at (213) 625-6900.

Other volunteering opportunities:

Volunteers age 60 and older are needed to facilitate reminiscence groups for seniors. Call Rose at (818) 845-7671.

Getting Involved is a weekly listing of volunteering opportunities. Please address prospective listings to Getting Involved, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth 91311. Or fax them to 818-772-3338.