Earlier this summer, the Bio X Cell Fund made a gift to Windsor County Mentors to support their School Pals Program. This gift will allow Windsor County Mentors to expand their in-school service area from 7 to 12 elementary schools.

Windsor County Mentors was established more than 40 years ago and since that time has created and sustained over 1,500 mentoring relationships. They match carefully screened adult volunteers with children between the ages of 5 and 18. These mentors meet with their mentees weekly, either through the School Pals program or the Community Pals program. It is the goal of Windsor County Mentors that these caring relationships help participating youth thrive and make healthy choices.

Windsor County Mentors is a partner with MENTOR Vermont, a capacity-building organization that supports youth mentoring programs in the state. MENTOR Vermont provides support, resources, and training to help mentoring programs meet their goal of using mentoring relationships to develop thriving, productive, and engaged adults.

The statistics provided by Windsor County Mentors and MENTOR Vermont show that children who have a mentor are less likely to skip school, do drugs, or participate in other risky behavior, while, at the same time, they are more likely to participate in sports, enroll in college, volunteer, and hold leadership positions.

Bio X Cell is proud to support such worthy goals!