Skillmation Needs You to Bring Mentorship (and Chess) to Port Townsend Schools
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Photo courtesy of Skillmation [/caption]
News by Nhatt Nichols
For nearly ten years, Skillmation has been connecting curious young people with experienced older people who want to share their knowledge with the next generation.
What started out as an electronic way to connect people with careers in welding, veterinary care, and engineering to kids who wanted to learn those skills has grown into a program that provides 9th graders with mentors through their high school life skills class.
With school back in session, Skillmation is hoping to attract new mentors to its program. Gary Smith, a retired teacher who has been volunteering with Skillmation since 2018, emphasized that it’s beneficial for more than just the students. “It's as vital for people at my stage in life as it is for the young people,” Smith said.
“I just want to live in a town where every kid is seen and heard, every kid has a connection with somebody who is not a service provider and not a relative”
— Gary Smith, Skillmation volunteer
Skillmation is looking for volunteers to be 9th-grade mentors, classroom presenters, coaches for specialist subjects, senior project mentors and chess coaches.
Smith helped start the chess club at Blue Heron four years ago and has seen it grow from a handful of interested students to over 80 kids playing chess in the busy cafeteria during lunch. “By February of that first year, nine of them went to Centralia and placed third in a chess tournament,” Smith said.
The success spread quickly to the high school and Salish Coast elementary schools, and this year, the Blue Heron team went back to that same tournament and won first place. “I had no idea how that particular activity would pull people in my demographic into the schools, and that the kids would take off with it,” Smith said.
You don’t have to be a chess player to be part of Skillmation, though. They’ve also helped students learn how to design, make, market and sell products that utilize local ingredients, and brought expertise in STEM subjects into the classroom. If you would like to participate in any or all of what Skillmation does, visit www.skillmation.org, and fill out a mentor profile.
For Smith, being part of Skillmation has brought him a new sense of community. “I just want to live in a town where every kid is seen and heard, every kid has a connection with somebody who is not a service provider and not a relative,” Smith said. “When I walk downtown and I see a kid and I hear my name out of a crowd, or I'm walking past a group of kids and high five each other as we pass. That's the goal.”
