WARWICK, RI — The story of Beth Tidswell, one  of RI Mentoring Partnership’s longest-serving mentors, and her now-grown charge, David, has a chance to win a Facebook voting competition the organization hopes will award her an Alaskan cruise to reward her service – and there’s still time to add your vote before midnight tonight.
The competition is sponsored by Cabot Cheese and the National Mentoring Partnership, offering an Alaskan cruise to the winning mentor/story in the Facebook poll. Facebook users can cast a vote for one of four finalists in the competition as their favorite mentoring team.
“As I write this, Beth is just barely in the lead but our closest competition comes from a mentoring pair in California where they have a much bigger program to rally behind the vote. Voting closes at 11:59pm on August 30th, and it requires a facebook account,” said Marc Mainville, Communications Coordinator for RI Mentoring Partnership, based at 3296 Post Road in Warwick.
David was a six-year-old first-grader when the two first met, and the two grew close during the school year.
At the end of the school year, the two realized they would have to say good-bye for the summer, but Beth and her husband Charlie didn’t want to stop spending time with and helping David, so Charlie signed on to be David’s Big Brother through Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Ocean State. That allowed Beth and Charlie to mentor David year-round and have him take part in family activities with them on a regular basis.
Beth said she is extremely proud that her family has been able to provide David with the additional support she believes every young person needs. David said he feels like Beth and Charlie are like a second family to him —he even escorted Beth down the aisle at her daughter’s wedding.
While David’s family is very supportive, he’s got Beth and Charlie to lean on as well as he navigates life’s challenges.
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