MOULTRIE, Ga. — The Moultrie Junior Woman’s Club recently announced the December Mentor of the Month: Carol Ann Horne.

As a public school teacher for 36 years, Horne has worked with children for most of her life, according to a press release from the club. Upon retirement, she wanted to continue to make a difference in the lives of children and saw the YMCA Mentor program as an opportunity to do that.  

Horne is in her 11th year of mentoring at Norman Park Elementary and is working with just her third student. She said she enjoys mentoring because it allows her to be back in a school setting working with children, and because she gets to be involved in the lives of her mentees outside of the classroom by supporting them in school plays, athletics, and honors programs.

When asked what gains she sees in the students she mentors, Horne explained that academic progress is the most significant change she sees, but that the mentoring relationship also promotes positive social attitudes and provides supportive relationships in the students’ lives.

Horne looks forward to meeting with her mentee each week, and hopes that her greatest accomplishment as a mentor would be to help students understand the importance of education and to help them gain the skills and confidence needed to assume responsibility in achieving their goals.  

Horne strongly encourages anyone who has the time to invest in the mentoring program to do so.  She says “mentors give students positive academic, social, and emotional support.  It is a very worthwhile program in our community and I am so blessed to be a part of it.”

The YMCA mentoring program is a school-based mentoring program working with more than 200 volunteers from the community. To find out more about how you can become a mentor in our community, contact Jan Barrow, mentoring director, at 985-1154 or jbarrow@moultrieymca.org.