JOINT BASE LANGLEY-EUSTIS, Va. –
“One of the young girls told me, ‘You know when you dream
that you have everything and you wake up and you have nothing? Well, this was
the opposite of that,’” said Mary Midyette, Team Up mentoring supervisor after
purchasing gifts during the “Shop with a Cop” event.
U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations at
Detachment 201, with the support of the 633rd Security Forces Squadron and
633rd Civil Engineering Squadron, partnered with The Up Center’s Team Up mentoring
program, a non-profit organization in Hampton Roads, to mentor 13 local youth
during the “Shop with a Cop” event at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Dec. 19, 2017.
The event featured a show-and-tell where the service
members demonstrated to the children what they do on a daily basis to ensure
security at JBLE, such as K-9 handling, Explosive Ordinance Disposal and
advanced investigative techniques.
“The goal of this event was to build positive and lasting
relationships between law enforcement and youth from our Hampton Roads
community by exposing them to the Air Force and our law enforcement mission,”
said U.S. Air Force Special Agent O, AFOSI member.
Following the show-and-tell, each child was assigned a partner
for the day, with either an AFOSI Special Agent or a 633rd SFS defender who escorted
them through the Base Exchange. Each child was also gifted $70 to purchase
items they would like for themselves or their families for the holidays.
Many of the children sought out the opportunity to use
the donations not only for themselves, but their families for the holidays.
The frost sibling for example, wandered around the Base
Exchange, after finding the gifts they liked, in search of a nice smelling gift
for their blind, single-mother.
After purchasing the gifts and having some of them
wrapped for free outside of the entrance, the children thanked the law
enforcement personnel for allowing them to purchase gifts they otherwise may
have missed out on during this holiday season.
According to Midyette, Team Up provides caring adult role
models to at-risk youth, ranging from age 6 to 17, in the South Hampton Roads
area. There are currently 327 boys and 95 girls waiting for a mentor in the
five cities in South Hampton Roads of Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake, Suffolk
and Virginia Beach.
The program is volunteer and donation based, and each
mentor commits several hours a week, for at least one year, with their mentees
where they offer their mentees guidance, support and encouragement.
“Amazing things happen when an adult takes an interest in
a child,” said Midyette. “Studies and our own outcome assessments show that
mentored youth do better in school, are more likely to go on to college, get along better with family and peers, and
they are less likely to get involved with drugs. Mentoring can transform the
lives of the young people in our community so they can reach their full
potential.”
For more information on the Team Up mentorship program,
contact Mary Midyette at 397-2121.