Our speaker was Dan Leal, Executive Director of Seedlings. Dan is a member of the Rotary e-Club of Central Texas. Seedlings is a non-profit organization that provides mentors for children who have a parent that has been incarcerated. 1 out of 14 children in the U.S. will have a parent incarcerated as some point in their lives. 8000 children in a 4 county area in Central Texas have an incarcerated parent. Having a parent in prison is an adverse childhood experience and can affect the rest of a child’s life without intervention. Mentors assigned by Seedlings meet with a child once a week over lunch at their school. Mentors are there to listen and be a friend. Dan told us about his mentee, who he has been mentoring for 4 years. Mentors at Seedling must make a one year commitment, but their mentorship can last for years if both the mentor and mentee so desire. The average match relationship is 24 months. Seedlings’ goal is to provide mentors for 550 kids. New mentor/mentee matches start between kindergarten and 8th grade. There are usually around 100 kids are waiting for a mentor to be assigned. Seedlings gets its funding from participating school districts, some from grants, some for donations and some from their annual fundraising event. If you have time, think about becoming a mentor through Seedlings and help a child through a rough time in his/her life!