Message to Boomers:
Share What You Know—Mentor a Child

This month, the oldest baby boomers will turn 60. Thanks to historic advances in public health and medicine, the average 60-year-old boomer can expect to live to 83, and many will continue well into their 90s. North Carolina alone has over 1 million people who will turn 55 or older this year. It is one of the fastest growing retirement states in the nation. As a “seasoned” group of citizens, baby-boomers will have more time, more money, and more expertise to share with the younger generation than ever before. For every child in North Carolina, there are four adults. While many of our citizens are still raising children, building their careers, or struggling to meet their own family needs, we are blessed to have a population of people who have the opportunity to finally “give back,” through not only their financial resources but also their time. Never have we needed help more than now!

This longevity revolution has created a new stage of life, nestled between middle age and true old age—a 20-year span, from 60 to 80. This new stage doesn’t have a name yet, and doesn’t have a defined purpose. But ready or not, it’s about to happen for the first wave of boomers who came of age in the turbulent 60s. For that “JFK Generation,” the 60s are back.

Twenty years is a lot of time to spend looking backward, getting one’s affairs in order, and enjoying leisure. And so, many will confront the question: “What do I want to do with the rest of my life?”

In a recent report, Reinventing Aging: Baby Boomers and Civic Engagement*, the Harvard School of Public Health and MetLife Foundation documented an “unprecedented opportunity” on the horizon to strengthen local communities by tapping the time, energy, and skills of older boomers.

One interesting question raised in the report is whether older boomers still harbor remnants of their idealistic feelings from the JFK era, and whether, as they become freed up from child rearing and other demands of middle age, they will want to channel those feelings, and some of their time, into concrete actions as community volunteers. The report singles out a highly rewarding way to “give back” to the community: by becoming a child’s mentor.

January was National Mentoring Month (NMM), an annual nationwide drive to recruit volunteer mentors for children. This year, the campaign placed special emphasis on motivating America's 77 million baby boomers to volunteer. The campaign's message to boomers—and to everyone else—was “Share What You Know. Mentor A Child!” In partnership with the North Carolina Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service, January launched our renewed effort to recruit from this rich and vital resource.

In North Carolina, we are blessed to have thousands of new baby boomers moving in to North Carolina. New “active adult communities” are springing up daily in our coastal and mountain areas. Newcomers from all walks of life are moving to North Carolina and bringing with them a wealth of experience and expertise. North Carolina also has many of our long-time residents reaching the golden age where they finally have time to enjoy life and volunteer. While in many cases their own grandchildren live elsewhere, what better way to enjoy youth than sharing a little of your life experiences with a young person. Often too busy in the past raising their own children, volunteering in their children’s schools, or driving car pools, boomers can finally find some time to do those things they could not do while raising their own families and pursuing careers.

The campaign emphasized that mentoring is a two-way street, with benefits for the volunteer as well as for the child. What the child gets is confidence, significance, a sense of belonging, a hopeful outlook, and the motivation and skills to succeed. And for the older person, serving as a mentor offers meaning and purpose, and the profound satisfaction of making a lasting difference in a child's life.

As a highlight of the campaign, Thank Your Mentor Day was celebrated on Wednesday, January 25. On that day, many Americans will reach out to thank or honor those individuals who encouraged and guided them, and who had a lasting impact on their lives. The theme for Thank Your Mentor Day was “Who mentored you? Thank them … and pass it on!”

The idea behind “Who mentored you?” was to help people connect to the importance of mentoring by encouraging them to think about individuals in their lives during their formative years—family members, teachers, coaches, neighbors, employers, friends—who encouraged them, showed them the ropes, and helped them become who they are today. The campaign's message was that, today, too many young people do not get enough of that kind of support; mentoring programs can help fill the gap but need more volunteers.

So, who mentored you? Why not “pass it on” to a young person in North Carolina by volunteering as a mentor? It doesn’t take special skills to be a mentor—just an ability to listen and offer friendship, guidance, and encouragement to a young person growing up today.

For more informatin call 919-832-2700 or email mentoringinnc@aol.com.

*Center for Health Communication, Harvard School of Public Health. Reinventing Aging: Baby Boomers and Civic Engagement. Boston, MA: Harvard School of Public Health, 2004. Available at http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/chc/reinventingaging/Report.