Sandy Creek nurse Searle earns TeamMates prize
Launch the media gallery 1 playerAffectionately known as Nurse Brenda, Brenda Searle is the go-to for complaints of headache sore throat, upset stomach and other random ailments that affect Sandy Creek students.
She's also known for her role in TeamMates, serving as a mentor since 2005 and as co-coordinator of the Sandy Creek chapter for the past decade.
"It is so rewarding to help another person to be the best they can be, " she said.
And now, but the luck of the draw, Searle is being rewarded for her involvement in the school-based, youth-mentoring program founded by former Husker football coach Tom Osborne in 1998. She has received the first-place prize in a drawing as part of a recent initiative to expand TeamMates' pool of mentors.
Searle's prize includes two plane tickets and a three-night hotel stay.
The TeamMate's Back to School Challenge called on current volunteers to recruit new mentors. The nams of nominees who went on to become mentors, as well as their nominators, were placed in a drawing for one of six prizes.
Team-Mates has about 150 school-based chapters in mainly Nebraska and Iowa, and has served more than 8,400 youth in grades 3-13 during its 20 years of existence. The program recently expanded into Kansas and Wyoming
"Our program speaks for itself," Searle said.
The program's goal is to serve at least 12,000 youth by 2020.
At the heart of the TeamMates program is matching adult mentors with elementary, middle, and high school students for weekly visits at their school, Searle explained. Sandy Creek currently has 39 mentor-students matches, eight of whom were added through the Back to School Challenge.
While the Sandy Creek chapter also offers special events like zoo visits and pizza parties to bring mentor-mentee pairs together, it's the weekly one-on-one meetings that form the foundation of friendship that as the potential to bring positive influence to youth, Searle explained.
Mentors and students are matched per shared interests, and the school-based visits center on these, Searle continued. The school encourages matches to eat lunch together, and provides card or board games. Mentors may instead bring in an activity, such as a craft or decorating Christmas cookies. Searle recalled a mentor who guided the student in making a blanket to donate to the Crossroads Rescue Mission in Hastings.
Any student in third grade or above qualifies for the program, as long as he or she is respectful and motivated to participate, Searle explained. Potential adult volunteers must pass background checks and go through training. Each mentor is paired with only one mentee until that students is no longer in the program.
TeamMates puts a significant focus on supporting mentors, Searle explained. To this end, Sandy Creek has opted to become a Strengths-Based Chapter, meaning that it identifies the character strengths of its participants to further improve initial matching and continued mentor-student relationships.
“It’s really enlightening,” Searle said, adding her top strengths are seeing and encouraging the positive traits in others, empathy responsibility, discipline and living her life according to strong convictions.
Recognizing character strengths gives adult volunteers and their student matches another tool in their mentoring relationships, she explained.
Adults interested in serving as mentors should contact their local school district or visit TeamMates.org for more information.
Story written by Rita Brhel and publishes in the Clay County News Wednesday, January 2, 2019