By Renee Larr
A breakfast to benefit the Youth Mentoring Initiative will be held from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. Aug. 24 at The Historic Ambassador House, 10595 Eller Rd. It is hosted by Mayor Scott Fadness.
“We have about 200 mentors who go into Hamilton Southeastern schools to mentor students. What we’ve found through statistics from the school system (is) that over 37 percent of Fishers students grades seven through 12 felt sad, hopeless and depressed,” said Todd Melloh, executive director of YMI. “The job of our mentors is not to fix these kids, but it’s really just to provide a loving, caring adult in their lives. That’s what we do.”
Mental health is one of Fadness’ key initiatives, so this year YMI asked if he would participate in its annual breakfast.
“We have had the breakfast, but it’s always been the YMI breakfast,” Melloh said. “This year we asked the mayor if he would jump on board. He has always attended, but this year he is participating because of his mental health initiative. We’re excited to have him on board with this.”
The goal of the breakfast is to raise money for YMI and celebrate its mission.
“The breakfast will be more of a celebration of what we’ve done,” Melloh said. “We get a review from the mayor about where the state of mental health is and how the city and YMI are playing a part. He’ll discuss how we’re progressing toward his initiative and goals. Then we want to commission all the mentors to go out into the community and the schools to be there to celebrate mentoring.”
YMI has a goal to raise $50,000 for its mission. The event is open to the public. Tickets are $50 per person. For more, visit ymionline.org.
