THE generosity within the community of Hamilton and the solid efforts of the Standing Tall in Hamilton Inc (STiH) committee, have combined to meet the lofty goal of raising $140,000 in 140 days for the STiH mentoring program.

 Last week, STiH program manager, Dee Barrera, proudly announced a total of $142,094 had been raised.

“Setting a high fundraising target was a big challenge for us, but we knew we had to give it a go,” she said.

STiH launched the ambitious campaign on May 12 with every confidence that the community understood the valuable work the mentors do and would get behind the program and the students that are supported through it.

“When Mel (Fitzpatrick) and I started in our roles here earlier this year, we calculated the cost to bring one student into the program, and to keep them in the program for a year,” Ms Barrera said.

“We worked it out to be a cost of $2000 per student per year.

“This may seem high for a not-for profit program supported by volunteers, but even not-for-profits must spend money to make things possible.”

STiH is an award-winning, school-based mentoring program that works with students from grades four to 12 attending a partner school, supported by local community groups, businesses, and philanthropists.

Carefully matched mentors come from across the Southern Grampians Shire and meet with their mentees for an hour each week, for a minimum of 12 months, but often much longer, even years.

Ms Barrera said it costs money to run a safe and effective school-based mentoring program and that the $2000 covers things such as program insurances, governance, mentor recruitment including processing applications, conducting interviews, security screening, on-board training, ongoing refresher training and resources, processing student referrals, and planning and implementing mentoring sessions.

“The funds raised will help us support 71 students in the program which is wonderful,” she said.

The STiH program was first developed and implemented in 2003 by Jeanette Pritchard, a teacher at Baimbridge College at the time, starting out as a one-to-one school-based mentoring program for students at Baimbridge College.

Almost 20 years on, and the program has grown to a formal partnership with 15 junior and senior schools, granting more students the opportunity to access a mentor.

StiH school partners are:

Balmoral K-12 Community College, Baimbridge College, Cavendish Primary School, George Street Primary School, Good Shepherd College (Junior and Senior), Hamilton (Gray Street) Primary School, Hamilton North Primary School, Hamilton Parklands School, Monivae College, St Mary’s Primary School, Penshurst Primary School, Tarrington Lutheran School, and The Hamilton and Alexandra College (Junior and Senior).

STiH president, Rob Vecchiet, said the fundraiser had been a valuable undertaking in more ways than one and helped to engage the community more, and ensure more people were aware of the program and what it offers students in local schools.

“We are really grateful that our entire community, including businesses, clubs, schools, foundations and many individuals, have collectively helped us raise more than our target amount,” he said.