Calhoun, Homer's city clerk and a race car driver since 1992, has volunteered since October as a mentor in the Kenai Peninsula School District Aspirations program. Aspirations mentors meet an hour a week with individual or small groups of students to talk and do projects like beading, carving pumpkins or making gingerbread houses, said Sheilah-Margaret Pothast, the Aspirations facilitator.
Not Calhoun. She had her students take on a simple, easy little project.
They tore apart and rebuilt her race car engine -- cylinders, gaskets, rings, valves, bearings and all.
Calhoun races her Ford Kent in Sports Car Club of Alaska solo, timed events. Depending on how much she pushes the car, she and her husband John Calhoun rebuild the Cortina 1,600 cc, 4-cylinder engine at least once a season. For her Aspirations project, Calhoun asked if she could have her kids help her rebuild a race car engine. Middle school principal Glen Szymoniak allowed her to use the old shop room at the school. Calhoun and her four students met each week to work on the engine. They started by taking it completely apart and cleaning it.
"So clean your hands don't get dirty," Calhoun said.
Mentors act as "adult friends" who are there for students to spend time with, said Pothast.
"They may talk for an hour. In some cases, they might listen," she said. "If kids are busy, they're much more likely to open up."
Aspirations is part of an international program started by Russ Quagla of the University of Maine, Orono, said Pothast. The program seeks to establish eight conditions -- the term used in the program -- in kids: belonging, heroes, sense of accomplishment, fun and excitement, curiosity and creativity, spirit of adventure, leadership and responsibility and confidence to take action. Children fulfill these conditions by meeting with mentors.
Students come to the program through presentations in middle school and high school classes by Aspirations site coordinators at Kenai Peninsula Borough schools. Homer's site coordinator is Lisa Fellows, who runs programs at Homer Middle School and Homer High School.
Students having problems in school who might benefit from working with a mentor are encouraged to be in Aspirations, but the program is voluntary and done with the permission of parents, Pothast said. Aspirations is funded by a grant from the federal Safe and Drug Free Schools program.
A key condition of Aspirations is belonging, Pothast said. Students sometimes drop out of school because they feel like they don't belong to a group. Aspirations is one way of making students feel like they belong to a group -- their mentor group.
Over the school year, Calhoun's students rebuilt the engine from the block up. They broke the glaze on the engine -- the carbon build up in the cylinders -- and put in new gaskets, rings and cam bearings.
"Not an easy job," Calhoun said.
They checked the compression and timing, and did all the fine mechanical work to make it run like a warm, fat and happy cat purring in the afternoon sun.
Calhoun said she had to apply to be a mentor, a process that involves a personal interview and even a background check. Pothast said mentors sign a contract explaining the program's expectations and commitment. Commitment is important, she said.
"We want to be there for the kids. Consistency is the key. It's a huge gift they give by being there," Pothast said.
"We say we're going to do something, we're going to do it," Calhoun said.
When they were done rebuilding the engine, Calhoun and the kids put the engine back in the race car, and added one more touch: they signed the engine, four neat signatures in gold and silver paint.
"It was pretty impressive to see the growth in the kids, the changes in the kids," Calhoun said.
Pothast said volunteers like Calhoun make the program work. She also praised the support of employers like the city of Homer who give volunteers time off during the work week to participate in Aspirations. Pothast noted that Calhoun is probably one of the busier people in Homer.
"That she can make the time will encourage others to make the time," Pothast said.
Calhoun said it was rewarding to see the kids grow and learn.
"I think I got more out of it than they did," she said. "It was an awesome thing, just awesome."
Would Calhoun be a mentor next school year?
"I sure want to," she said. "I have another engine I want to rebuild."
