MOULTRIE, Ga. — The Moultrie Junior Woman’s Club recently announced the February Mentor of the Month, Gloria Smith.

Smith has worked with and mentored children for over 40 years in various capacities: teaching in church and public schools, teaching English to foreign students, and counseling abused children. Once she retired and returned to Georgia, Smith used her varied and extensive experience to mentor children in Moultrie. A YMCA mentor at Cox Elementary for 16 years, Smith currently mentors a student at Cox (the same student for over three years) and has recently added a second mentee from R.B. Wright.

“I give back to make a better world by working with children. I am the person I am because some special teacher or neighbor gave me extra attention and help when I was a child,” said Smith.

Nurturing the whole child, Smith loves to incorporate fun activities and arts within the academic lessons. She also teaches and models social skills such as manners, how to be a friend, and how to build positive relationships with other students and teachers. Smith, a writer of children’s books, shares her published pieces with her students and gives them copies of her books.

She said her greatest accomplishment as a mentor is when she receives positive responses from her students’ parents.

“When a parent becomes more interested in their child’s school work, this helps the child more than any other person in the child’s life,” Smith said. “Some parents have expressed appreciation and friendship to me for helping their child. They see their child wanting to be a good student and this makes a parent proud.”

Smith notices her students becoming more self-assured and confident as they experience improvement in their school work. Smith shared, “I also see how they respond to my visits by wanting to please me as well as how they improve relationships with their teachers. Teachers seem to be proud of the students who take school work with a more serious attitude.”

Smith and the Moultrie Junior Woman’s Club encourage anyone interested in becoming a mentor to contact the Moultrie YMCA.

For more information on the Moultrie YMCA’s Mentoring Program, contact Jan Barrow, mentoring director, at 985-1154 or jbarrow@moultrieymca.org.