UT, Mix 95.7 to bring national radio talk show host to Toledo to ‘Save Our Kids’

September 20, 2010 | Events, UToday
By Sarah Ritenour



Baisden

Baisden

With the help of WIMX-FM Mix 95.7, the Mentoring Collaborative at The University of Toledo and Toledo Public Schools are teaming up with radio talk show host Michael Baisden and his One Million Mentors Tour to raise awareness about mentoring and help recruit mentors for Toledo children.

The Michael Baisden Foundation is a nonprofit organization created to help eliminate illiteracy in the United States. Baisden launched the One Million Mentors Tour to Save Our Kids this year to inspire one million community members to become mentors.

“Mentors are needed everywhere,” said Sheila Doles, program facilitator for the Mentoring Collaborative. “There are no levels for who does and does not need a mentor. It doesn’t matter if you are homeless or a high-level professional; everyone can benefit from having a mentor.”

The UT Judith Herb College of Education became the primary sponsor for the campaign after Doles reached out to Baisden about the need for mentors in the Toledo area.

The seven-month, 72-city national bus tour will stop in Toledo Tuesday, Sept. 21, at the Erie Street Market. The radio show will air from 3 to 7 p.m., followed immediately by a town hall meeting at 7 p.m. when the public is invited to attend and participate.

“We hope to raise mentoring awareness in Toledo and to collaborate with other organizations,” Doles said.

The event will promote a partnership between the Mentoring Collaborative, the Judith Herb College of Education, the College of Pharmacy and Toledo Public Schools. Each will have informational tables set up at the town hall meeting.

The partnership is important because University mentors are starting to really reach out to students from Toledo Public Schools, said Larry Sykes, a member of the Toledo Board of Education.

“It’s easy to find tutors, but mentors are different. It’s more difficult to find a mentor,” Sykes said. “We hope that every child has a mentor, or at the very least every child who needs one most. Statistics show that when children have a mentor in their lives, they do much better.”

For more information on Baisden, visit www.onemillionmentors.com or contact Doles at sdoles@utoledo.edu or 419.381.3280. Visit the Mentoring Collaborative website at www.utoledo.edu/offices/mentoring to get connected locally.

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