We're excited to report that 4,140 Oklahomans volunteered to mentor young people in their communities during the 2016 Coaches’ Mentoring Challenge, a four-month campaign led by Oklahoma coaches and mentoring organizations to connect more caring adults and young people through quality mentoring relationships.

This marks the third year that Oklahoma has participated in the challenge, which has grown steadily. In 2014, 3,340 Oklahomans signed up to mentor, and in 2015 some 3,821 new mentors were reported by participating mentoring organizations.

This year’s campaign also saw a dramatic increase in participating Oklahoma coaches, with 424 from school districts and colleges across the state stepping up to endorse mentoring. Their endorsements were highlighted in a four-month-long social media and publicity campaign conducted by the Boren Mentoring Initiative, an administrative partner in the campaign. 

“The real winner in this challenge is Oklahoma children who will benefit from the positive relationships and many positive outcomes that mentoring brings,” said Boren Mentoring Initiative Director Beverly Woodrome. “We are grateful for the many Oklahoma coaches who helped promote mentoring in their communities, and we are thankful for the many mentoring programs in our network that participated and reported new mentor totals.”

The Coaches’ Mentoring Challenge was started in 2008 as a friendly competition between mentoring advocates Coach Tom Osborne of the University of Nebraska and Coach Bill Snyder at Kansas State University to encourage fans to become mentors. Since then, many coaches from universities, colleges and secondary schools around the country have signed up to endorse the challenge. Oklahoma’s effort has been spearheaded by OU Coach Bob Stoops and OSU Coach Mike Gundy. This year, four participating states reported a total of 7,130 new mentors between Aug. 1 and Nov. 30.

“As natural and group mentors, coaches know firsthand the impact that a mentor can have in building skills, confidence and character in our young people,” Woodrome added. “By endorsing the Mentoring Challenge, they have sent a message that they value mentoring and see a critical need for more volunteer mentors for kids in their schools and communities.”