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Sep. 30--DECATUR -- A roomful of females fell utterly silent after 25-year-old author Shayla Day asked the teenagers among them to write down what they want for their lives and what steps they need to take to get there.
Later, she said, "What you just wrote in that notebook right there, it's possible."
Sitting beside them, ready to show them the way, were mentors ranging from college students to career women.
The black suit worn by Doris Rowan, 43, a customer service representative with AmerenIP, was part of what attracted Eboni Williams, a 17-year-old junior at MacArthur High School, to her side. "She's dressed like the businesswoman I've always wanted to be," Eboni said.
Such was how dozens of mentoring relationships began Friday evening during the kickoff of Decatur's new GIRL Program at the Greater Decatur Y. The goal is to reach 100 girls this year.
"We have a surplus of mentors at the moment, which is a great problem to have," said Christine Pinckard, dropout prevention coordinator for the Decatur School District.
Its acronym standing for Growing Into Responsible Leaders, the program links African-American women with black girls attending Decatur public middle schools and high schools. The partners are to write to one another at least weekly, meet for lunch at least monthly and participate in a special event each quarter.
The Girl Scout Shemamo Council, the school district and the Decatur YWCA developed the program to address Decatur's high school dropout rate for minority females, which has historically been second only to minority males and from 2001 to 2004 exceeded 40 percent.
More than 60 females participated in Friday's kickoff, which also included pizza and NAACP Decatur Branch President Jeanelle Norman urging the teenagers to use their mentors wisely by performing an original rap song ala Yung Joc.
Some of the girls and women who paired up already knew each other, some did not and at least one pair discovered they had more in common than they realized before introducing one another to the group.
"This is Shequita Bunch," 42-year-old Ellen Burris said with a laugh, "and I just found out her sister is going to homecoming with my son."
Shequita, 17, is a MacArthur senior, and her 18-year-old sister, Shaina, a student at Richland Community College, is a mentor with the GIRL Program.
"It's a small, small world," Shaina said.
Theresa Churchill can be reached at tchurchill@herald-review.com or 421-7978.
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Copyright (c) 2006, Herald & Review, Decatur, Ill.
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