Ferentz Joins Iowa Mentoring Partnership Challenge

Ferentz Joins Iowa Mentoring Partnership Challenge

Sept. 6, 2011

IOWA CITY, Iowa — University of Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz and Iowa State football coach Paul Rhoads have joined forces with the Iowa Mentoring Partnership for the 2011 Coaches’ Challenge. The Coaches’ Challenge runs from Aug. 1-Nov. 21 and is a competition between Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas to see which state can recruit the most mentors.

For three years, Kansas and Nebraska have competed in a “Coaches Mentoring Challenge”, with Bo Pelini (Nebraksa), Bill Snyder (Kansas State) and Turner Gill (Kansas) taking part in the competition. Ferentz and Rhoads will join the competition this season.

According to The National Mentoring Partnership, there are 15 million children in the nation in need of caring and quality mentors. In Iowa, it is estimated that nearly 5,000 young people are currently in need of a mentor. Many of these children and youth are young men who would strongly benefit from a positive male role model. The Iowa Mentoring Partnership, an initiative of the Iowa Commission on Volunteer Service, upholds the commission’s mission to “improve lives, strengthen communities and foster civic engagement through service and volunteering” by supporting quality mentoring services and by working to close the mentoring gap in our state.

The Iowa Mentoring Partnership currently supports a network of more than 80 local, certified mentoring programs.

Any new mentor application received between Aug. 1-Nov. 21 will count towards the score of the respective state, with cumulative totals updated each month.

To find out more information or join the Coaches’ Challenge, visit www.iowamentoring.org or call 1-800-308-5987.