The Mentoring Program's Fall Fun Retreat

On October, 26, mentors and mentees gathered together at the Jones Center to celebrate the third annual Mentor Retreat. Upon arrival, many mentors and mentees were dressed up in their various costumes. Michelle Lee and her mentee, Collin Thompson, dressed up as fairies. Samantha Harp and Christina Salgado were dressed up as if it were their birthdays! MaKalynn Hartman and her mentor, Jamie Fritz, dressed up as angels while Cheyenne Pinkerman and Desaray Botteron dressed as pirates.

Upon arrival, a waffle breakfast was served. Once everyone had eaten, the many activities began. To start, mentees and mentors carved pumpkins together. For MaKalynn Hartman, this provided a first time opportunity. “My favorite part of the mentor retreat was when Jamie and I carved our pumpkin. I had never carved a pumpkin before! I let Jamie be in charge of cleaning it out,” MaKalynn laughed. Other mentor-mentee matches dressed up their pumpkins, or created scenarios of pumpkins throwing up pumpkin “guts.”

        

After pumpkins were carved and pumpkin goop tossed away, it was time to build scarecrows from hay bales and clothing. Raul Flores and Ethan Dopeke made a very unique scarecrow with a paper outfit. For Ethan, this was his first time to build a scarecrow. “When my son Ethan came home he said he had a blast! He built his first scarecrow, and won the award for best scarecrow. They received a gift card to Fast Lanes as a prize, pretty cool,” said Sara Dopeke, Ethan’s mother. There were so many great scarecrows.

The final portion of the day was a Fall Festival Relay, where different stations held different fall activities. The stations included face painting, the mystery box, a photo booth, mummy game, twister, football throw, pumpkin seed spitting, a voting booth to decide who was dressed most creatively, and caramel apple making. For mentor Erin Wiltse and mentee Tracy, the mummy game was a favorite: “The best part of the mentor retreat was when I turned Tracy in to a mummy bride, she even had a toilet paper ring and veil. It was hilarious! We had a great time.” All of these stations gave matches the opportunity to have tons of fun together and win prizes.

While waiting for the winners of different activities to be announced, mentors and mentees played a few rounds of smashball, a camp favorite. Prizes were offered for the best pumpkin, most unique scarecrow, and overall Fall Festival winner. The winner of the Pumpkin contest went to Desaray Botteron, an 8^th grader from Bentonville, and her mentor Cheyenne. Their pumpkin was carved to resemble a Minion from the movie Despicable Me. Raul Flores and Ethan Dopeke won the “best scarecrow” prize for their paper-covered scarecrow, which looked like a recycling dream. The overall winner of the Fall Festival was Collin Thompson of Springdale and her mentor, Michelle Lee. Collin and Michelle were excited about the win, “Collin and I planned out our costumes and decided that we wanted to be fairies. Then we decided that everything we did was going to be fairy themed, so every event had to be decorated with ribbons and bows. I brought a basket full of craft supplies to dress up our pumpkin and our scarecrow as fairies. I am glad we did because Collin and I won first place! We received Chick-fil-a gift cards.” The prizes awarded matches will enable them to spend time together and support the building of relationships.

Yet again, the Fall Mentoring Retreat was a grand success. Mentors and mentees had a blast carving pumpkins, making scarecrows, participating in the Fall Festival, but most importantly, building strong memories. Everyone is looking forward to next years fourth annual Mentor Retreat.

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