CHICKASHA — OKLAHOMA CITY -- The Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence, through its David and Molly Boren Mentoring Initiative, is accepting nominations for the 2011 David and Molly Boren Mentoring Award, which honors an outstanding youth mentor in Oklahoma.

All mentoring programs that have registered through the Foundation’s mentoring initiative website at www.okmentors.org are eligible to nominate mentors. The winner will be honored at a reception and will be recognized in publicity during National Mentoring Month in January. The Foundation will present the honoree with a plaque and will donate $500 in the winner’s honor to benefit his or her mentoring organization.

A nomination form may be submitted by the mentoring program for which the nominee volunteers or by a staff member from a school where the nominee mentors. A mentoring program may submit up to three nominations. Nomination forms are available online at www.okmentors.org and are due by Wednesday, Oct. 20.

The winner will be selected based on his or her impact on the mentee, commitment to the mentoring program, and creative examples of mentoring activities.

For 2010, the foundation honored Henry Wallace of Hugo. Wallace, a volunteer with Little Dixie’s Passport to the Future Mentoring Program, became a mentor after learning that two young boys in the community had lost their mother in an incident of domestic violence.  Having lost his own mother in a similar circumstance, Wallace knew he had to reach out.

Through the program, which serves over 300 children of incarcerated parents, Wallace was matched with 9-year-old Charles and 8-year-old Marquelle.  Doris Long, director of the Passport to the Future Mentoring Program, said that since being matched with Wallace, the boys have been able to start talking about their mother’s death and have come out of their shell. “Charles virtually shut down emotionally, but thanks to Henry he is laughing again and playing with other children.”

Wallace said his own life experiences have given him a unique opportunity to relate to the boys and comfort them. “I try to reach out to them and let them know that life still goes on and they can be happy again even though they may feel bad for a while.”

The Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence, a nonprofit organization founded in 1985 by then-U.S. Sen. David L. Boren, recognizes and encourages academic excellence in Oklahoma’s public schools. In 2005, the foundation launched the Boren Mentoring Initiative to promote the growth and development of school-based mentoring statewide. The initiative grew out of Boren’s own commitment to mentoring and the proven impact that mentoring can play on a student’s success in and out of the classroom.

“Think what would happen if all children in Oklahoma had mentors – someone to spend time with them, to tutor them, to love them,” Boren said. “Think how it would transform this state. It would be truly revolutionary!”

Through the mentoring initiative, the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence is working with school districts, mentoring organizations and businesses to promote mentoring as a positive step toward academic excellence. The foundation also provides training and networking opportunities for new and established mentoring programs and encourages programs to follow established standards for safe and effective practice.

For more information on the award, visit www.okmentors.org or call Jennifer Geren at (405) 410-1523.