Ryan Roff is a passionate, mission-oriented Affinity mentor and partner. For the past five years, Ryan has mentored a Burton Elementary student named Joel, building a lasting bond. Ryan is originally from Minneapolis, moving to Michigan to attend Calvin College many years ago. It is there that he met his wife, Brooke, whom he now has two young children with and settled into Grand Rapids.
Ryan is highly passionate about mentoring, which has led him to not only mentor, but partner his company, boldSOCKS, with Affinity as well. “I saw a need for mentoring,” said Ryan, “I valued mentors over the years in my own life and felt a desire to pass it on. I wanted to invest into someone else. Knowing there is a waitlist for students to be matched with mentors is heartbreaking.” Each week Ryan and Joel play games together like “traffic jam” and jenga, or sometimes they work on homework or draw.
Partnership with Affinity
Ryan is the CEO and Co-Owner of a Grand Rapids based company, boldSOCKS, which currently has 8 employees who mentor weekly at Affinity. Through company give-back programs and organizational culture, their team believes that, “Together, we are a community of bold difference makers that value more than just fun socks.”
Ryan firmly believes that, “for organizations to be sustainable they need the support of businesses. Individuals have the opportunity to help, but it’s the support of the businesses that are the lifeline.”
“It was just me [mentoring] at the beginning, but we were looking for year end opportunities. No one had a response, it was eye-opening. We needed to figure out ways for employees to get involved with important causes.” Ryan began recruiting employees to mentor too. Eventually it evolved from a handful to almost the entire team.
BoldSOCKS’ staff usually carpool together to mentor, making it a type of team-building activity. “Five of us go together – we like to come in like a wrecking ball and serve at the same time.” In addition to mentoring, boldSOCKS also supports Affinity’s Annual Benefit Dinner to help ensure more students are matched with a caring mentor.
Mateo + Eric
boldSOCKS team
Klarisa + Autumn
If you’re interested in learning more about our partnerships, click here! Or become a mentor, click here!
Affinity Mentoring is pleased to announce it has received a $75,000 multiyear ($25,000 per year for 3 years) capacity building grant from the Steelcase Foundation. These funds will support current mentoring relationships and serve as seed money to open a 4th site at Godfrey-Lee Early Childhood Center (ECC) in Fall 2019.
“Schools, teachers, parents, and students from all over our community have been asking for Affinity Mentoring to be available in other schools,” says Laura Ward, Executive Director of Affinity Mentoring. “We’ve been working hard to build the capacity needed to expand the program. We’re thrilled to be able to add another site where students can receive additional academic, social emotional support and encouragement to reach their full potential.”
Since 2001 the mentoring program has matched over 1,500 students. However, there is a need for more. Affinity is building a multiyear expansion plan to serve more schools, like the 7 schools on the waiting list.
Julie Ridenour, President of the Steelcase Foundation says, “The Steelcase Foundation is honored to support Affinity Mentoring in its measured response to its program expansion. The growing number of requests from families for the mentoring services of Affinity is evidence of the quality of the work done by Affinity’s leadership and volunteers in three of the highest needs Kent County schools. The Steelcase Foundation is appreciative of Affinity’s willingness to base its work on best available research, rigorous analysis, and growing dedication to improving student literacy achievement.”
Kevin Polston, Superintendent of Godfrey-Lee Public Schools says, “Godfrey-Lee Public Schools believes in the impact mentoring can have on a child’s education and their overall wellbeing. One of our core values is community, the belief that it takes a village to raise a child. We are honored to begin a partnership with Affinity Mentoring to provide mentoring services at the Godfrey-Lee Early Childhood Center to bring out the brilliance in each child.”
In the upcoming year, Affinity will match up to 40 students at the ECC. The team is in the process of developing a robust fund development plan that includes grants, individual donations, corporate sponsorships, special events, and in-kind donations to ensure sustainability.
For the month of April 2019, our friends at ChoiceOne Bank selected Affinity Mentoring as their “Charity of Choice.” Employees held a “jeans day” to help raise funds to support mentoring.
“We appreciate the work our friends at Affinity Mentoring are doing in our community. This organization works to improve students academic achievement, self-esteem, social skills and avoidance of problematic behavior by providing a positive relationship with a caring adult mentor who works to support youth in achieving their potential.”
At the end of the month, the team at ChoiceOne donated a total of $500 to Affinity. These funds will be used to help recruit, screen, and train more mentors.
— If your organization would like to learn more about hosting a Jeans Day Fundraiser please contact info@affinitymentoring.org.
May 22nd was our annual Southwest Community Campus (SWCC) Spring Picnic, hosted by Gordon Food Service. SWCC is one of our current school partners, and Gordon Food Service is Affinity’s largest community partner, providing over 60 mentors to our program each year. This fun-filled event brought our SWCC mentor matches and their families together for one last time, before the school year commences. Attendees enjoyed delicious hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, cookies and more, all generously donated by Gordon Food Service. Aside from the great food, there were yard games, laughs, and even a firetruck for the children to explore. Events like the SWCC Spring Picnic are the heart of Affinity. Thank you, GFS!
May 17th we celebrated our annual Burton Carnival. This sought-after event took place at one of Affinity’s sites, Burton School of Grand Rapids. This was the second consecutive year which Affinity partnered with Burton Elementary School’s PTO to support this exciting event for its students, our mentees, mentors, and their families. The Burton Carnival is an entertaining way to raise money for Burton Elementary School, while celebrating the end of the year for mentor matches. Attendees shared smiles and laughs, while enjoying an array of carnival games, food, a bounce house, a cake walk and more. It was the perfect way to wrap up a great school year! Thank you to those who made this event possible and who were able to attend.
