Karen Boucher is pictured top left.
As the Positive Tracks Coordinator for the Dempsey Challenge, Tish Caldwell has learned a few things about mobilizing youth to get active and give back year after year. It’s not enough to reach out to schools—you have to reach out to the right person. “You need to get connected to an adult who is seriously interested in engaging their school in the cause,” says Tish.
At Edward Little High School, in Auburn, ME, that person is Karen Boucher, full-time science teacher and beyond full-time mentor to the PT Red Eddies, the school’s Positive Tracks Team. With Karen’s guidance, the PT Red Eddies have raised almost $86,000 for the Dempsey Center in the past three years, engaging 167 team members in “actively” supporting the cause. “She gathers, she leads, she recruits. She understands the mission, and can pass that on to the kids,” explains Tish. “She is an ambassador for the Dempsey Center and for Positive Tracks.”
As a science teacher and chair of the science department at Edward Little, Karen is always seeking a connection with students outside of class. After participating in the Dempsey Challenge with her own family, she saw it as an opportunity to get high school kids involved. Karen says, “I talked to kids who were already active in the school community and we put together a team.”
Rakiya Mohamed, now a sophomore at Bates College (and a Positive Tracks Youth Ambassador Board member), remembers exactly why she got involved during her junior year. “I was in Mrs. Boucher’s AP Biology class and she brought in two pharmacists to talk to the class. They asked who was involved with the Dempsey Center and no hands went up. It was embarrassing!”
That first year, the school team was all about awareness and participation. The taste of good fun, however, made them want to come back the following year in a more significant way. They started the Positive Tracks Club at school, meeting every Wednesday before the school day started. Now, the club’s 40 or so members are continually involved with coming up with creative fundraising ideas to build momentum, awareness and funds for their eventual athletic participation in the Dempsey Challenge. It might be the “chuck a duck” (plastic duck toss during football games), making and selling food and bracelets, or organizing a calendar raffle where $5 gets you a chance to win prizes (donated by local merchants) every day of the month.
At meetings they practice asking for support, as well as talking about The Dempsey Center and Positive Tracks. “We almost write a script, “ explains Karen. She adds that the club has, “sort of taken on a life of its own. Now they come to me when they need help, and ask to meet.” When they have to meet on a Saturday morning to hit the pavement, Karen is there before they set out, bolstering them with encouragement.
Karen’s focus is on engaging the community, which includes soliciting donations, but also helping the kids find friendly local venues where they can meet and mingle with potential supporters. One such favorite is Gritty McDuff’s Local Brew Pub & Restaurant, better known as “Gritty’s” where the kids can gather and hold events. “The kids love going there just to be together,” says Karen.
Visits to The Dempsey Center also pulls students in, and keeps them in. “Once they see The Dempsey Center, it changes them,” says Karen. Rakiya agrees, “When I visited the Dempsey Center and saw first hand what it did for people, that was all I needed. It reinforced our purpose.”
Supporting, Karen has learned, includes letting them go, helping turn bad ideas—i.e. pie in the face for the principal and deans—into winning ideas, and above all, always being there. “She valued what we had to say and considered all proposals,” says Rakiya, now a sophomore majoring in Biochemistry and American Studies at Bates. “We turned to her when we didn’t know what to do, and she was like magic!”
Last year was PT Red Eddie’s third year, and the second time a cancer survivor was on the team – something that further inspired their efforts. One of the goals this year is to coordinate the Red Eddie’s with Auburn Middle School, so high school students can mentor younger kids, prepping them as future club members and easing their transition to high school. “Already, they’ve taken my own kids under their wings,” says Karen, whose daughter Ella along with her friend Molly have baked thousands of cupcakes to benefit the Center through her project Delicious for Dempsey, and whose son, Ethan, plans to start his own fundraiser.
Taking on this role adds a lot to her plate, but as Karen says, “When you’re doing something good that you love, it doesn’t feel like a lot of time.”
Want to max out your mentoring power? Here are some of Karen’s tips:
- Make it fun: Keep it casual and low pressure.
- Help them understand the cause and their impact: The kids have year-long, hands on interaction with the Dempsey Center.
- Just do it: Get them to an event. Goals, as in “we want to run the 10K and raise more dollars next year!” will come later.
- Get out of the way: Sometimes you have to let them fail. Even unsuccessful fundraisers end up having a lot of lessons.
- Remember they’re still kids: They need guidance, support and encouragement every step of the way!