FSD has funded program’s first semester; Scott and Anita Locker heading up community backing
FERNDALE — The Lynden-based Be The One mentoring program is expanding into Ferndale, and the expansion now has its leaders.
Ferndale residents Scott and Anita Locker will head up the Ferndale program of Be The One, which started on Tuesday.
“They wanted to expand the program that has obviously been so successful in Lynden,” Scott said.
“They” are Nancy and Denny McHarness, who founded Be The One in Lynden during the 2012-13 school year as part of their Partners For Schools nonprofit.
Partners For Schools specializes in fundraising money to give to a school district to pay for one employee to oversee an on-campus mentorship program. The Lynden program had 58 active mentor matches at Lynden High School during the 2017-18 school year.
Partners For Schools recently announced that the Ferndale School District has fully funded the mentorship coordinator position through the first semester of the 2018-19 school year. The community will need to step up and handle the expenses from there.
Annie Anderson is the Ferndale School District’s newly hired community mentorship coordinator, and she started on Tuesday.
The McHarnesses oversee the Lynden program, and they needed willing individuals to serve the same roles in Ferndale. Scott Locker said they were asking around Ferndale, and his and Anita’s names came up multiple times.
“They reached out to us, and we met with them, and they told us the vision, and we thought about it and finally came to the conclusion that this is just a great thing for the kids in Ferndale and the community in Ferndale,” Scott said. “It just felt like a great way to give back.”
The Lockers’ job consists of two essential parts: fundraising and finding mentors. So far, Scott’s focus has been on finding people in the community to support Be The One in Ferndale. This task has involved meeting with the community and local business owners and presenting their vision of Be The One.
On the mentorship side, Scott said they have seen a big response from people in the Ferndale area.
“I grew up here, and I’ve coached in this community, and the people in Ferndale have always been supportive of the teams that I’ve coached,” Scott said. “I just know that this community will rally around us and help us in our vision to bring this and make this a really successful program in Ferndale.”
