Red Sox Manager Terry Francona and Pitching Coach John Farrell served as lively event auctioneers and helped honor leading supporters of mentoring at Mass Mentoring Partnership’s sixth annual Champions of Mentoring Breakfast at Fenway Park on May 20. 

The event, which coincided with Mentoring Night at Fenway Park that evening, also featured AL MVP Joe Mauer of the Minnesota Twins and NESN Red Sox Studio Host Tom Caron.  The event raised a reacord-breaking $225,000 - almost 20 percent more than in 2009 - to help MMP reach its goal of doubling the number of Massachusetts youth in high-quality mentoring relationships to 40,000 by 2013. 

This year’s honorees were Sheriff Andrea Cabral, Rodman Ride for Kids President Don Rodman, and State Sen. Stan Rosenberg.       

• Suffolk County Sheriff Andrea Cabral – also an MMP board member – is one of the state’s most vocal mentoring supporters, touting it as a prevention strategy and a cost-effective method that ultimately helps keep at-risk youth thriving and out of the justice system.  Most recently, she has taken a leadership role in the advisory council of MMP’s newest mentor recruitment campaign, Mentors of Color.
• Don Rodman, president of the Rodman Ride for Kids, has enabled mentoring programs to fundraise millions of dollars through the Rodman Ride for Kids for the last 20 years, and has engaged in his own tireless efforts to raise money on behalf of the state’s most vulnerable youth.
• State Sen. Stan Rosenberg has long been a staunch champion of mentoring.  He originally created the Mentoring Matching Grants line item – the only dedicated state funding for youth mentoring – in 1999 and has been a lead voice for state resources for mentoring.

Additionally, three educational support awards were presented to mentees who have persevered through adversity:  the KELLY award, named in honor of Liberty Mutual Group Chairman, President & CEO, and former MMP Board Chair Ted Kelly and his wife Debbie, was awarded to Demetrius McLester from Boston Scholars and AJ Graziano, Jr. from Partners for Youth With Disabilities.  The Connolly Award, named in honor of the late President of Citizens Financial Group and MMP Board Chair Jim Connolly, was awarded to Staci Davidson from Big Sister Association of Greater Boston.  All three were nominated by their mentors.

The breakfast coincided with the annual Mentoring Night at Fenway Park, where the Red Sox and MMP hosted more than 700 mentors and mentees from across the state at the game against the Minnesota Twins, and several lucky mentor/mentees pairs participated in pre-game activities, from reading the NESN starting line-up, to throwing the ceremonial opening pitch, to singing the National Anthem.

 Photo top right: John Farrell, Terry Francona and Ron Shapiro help lead the auction.
Photo bottom right: Joe Mauer, center, with MMP's President & CEO David Shapiro and mentors and mentees.
Both photo credits: Morgan Ione Yeager

Thank you to our generous sponsors:

Presenting

Champions

MVPs

Bank of America
Citizens Bank
Jack Connors, Jr.
Conover Tuttle Pace
Continental Resources, Inc.
International Integrated Solutions, Ltd.
John and Tammy MacWilliams
Liberty Mutual
Carolyn and Peter S. Lynch
Staples, Inc.

All-Stars

Appleton Partners
BNY Mellon
BellMark Partners LLC
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts
Boston Private Bank and Trust Company
Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's
Eastern Bank Charitable Foundation
Ernst & Young
Frontier Capital Management
Gilbane Building Company
New England Patriots Charitable Foundation
Sovereign/Santander

Players

The Boston Foundation
Crystal Financial LLC
Parent, McLaughlin & Nangle
Pioneer Investments

Media Partners