Getting to know them... A Little!

Over and over you have heard us thank our mentors. Usually people assume that we are talking about our own personal mentors that guide us and help us grow. We are actually talking about a special group of teenagers. These teens have given up countless hours to help us run Cub Club Samba. They would come in every week, whether it was Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. They would show up to many of the performances and join us. They helped with homework, create out door games, and built friendships with not just our kids but us too. We had what we called the Tuesday “Crew”, the Wednesday “Crew” and Jonah the Thursday “Crew”.

Every Tuesday for the past several months we were joined by: Jonah Grant, Hannah Birch, and Noah Perry

Mr. Jonah: Senior at Tucson High, Advanced Steel drum and most Importantly the President of Jovert. Jonah enjoys likes walks in the park… Jonah.. or Mr. Jonah as he likes to be called, is a very dedicated rock climber. He brought a lot of laughter to our program. He helped recruit others to mentor. He is a banana eating machine. Hahaha when Jonah first started mentoring he was very shy. We really don’t understand why he was because once he came out of shell we couldn’t shut him up. Jk Jonah

Hannah Birch: Senior at Tucson High, Advanced Steel drum and Vice President of Jovert and most importantly Jonahs BFF and right hand “woman”. Loves her cat!! Don’t let the quiet shy girl she puts off fool you though. She is funny, outgoing and a free spirit. Our dedicated #3 player brightened up our day with her big smile. Our girls just loved her!

Noah: Senior at Tucson High, Advanced Steel Drum.. and Most importantly the guy with the shorts, hair and cool shades, joined us later in the year (after a guilt trip from lupe hahaha) jumped right in and helped where possible. The kids always looked forward to seeing what he would be wearing for the day. Weird I know but it was funny.

Our Tuesday Crew did a whole lot of drumming with our kids. They worked on the breaks and spent countless hours going over and over and over breaks and songs.

Every Wednesday for the past several months we were joined by:

Rueben Woodruff, Ivan Rodriguez, Aja Hernandez, Tray Young, Sterling Thomas, Cathy Tran and Niomy Perez.

Sterling Thomas: Senior at Tucson High, Advanced Steel drums, Captain of Track and Field team at Tucson high. Sterling, known for being really tall and out going, taught us about patience and teaching techniques. He is our super #1 player! (he always plays one).. He , like most of them always came hungry and ready to eat lol. Our little kids love hanging out with Sterling. Hes funny and makes them laugh. Sterling will be with CCS over the summer

Tray Young: Or Justin Bieber look a like, as he was known. Is in the Advanced Steel drum group. Tray can practically play anything you throw his way. He is .Mr. Everything! It did not matter what instrument we put him on he did his best, and kicked butt.

Reuben Woodruff: Advanced Steel drums, Marching Band and just plain Mr. Music man and babysitter!. This kid can compose, play.. he can just do just about anything musically. Reuben our main snare mentor, challenged Alfie. The kids loved when they went off into their own words drumming away. Reuben helped direct and lead CCS at several events.  Reuben will be with CCS over the summer.

IVAN: Advanced Steel drums, Yoga, Foreign language extraordinaire, Scientist and just plan smartie pants. Ivan grew soo much over the school year. Musically and as a teen, Ivan is the out doors kinda kid that loves to explore and learn about new things new discoveries. Ivan’s wisdom has taught us both soo much!

Aja: Steel drums, Bowling star but most importantly Welder! Our little Ms. Aja, Shy, to herself at the beginning. Blossomed like a little flower. Aja played anything we threw her on. Stepped up to many challenges and is just plain awesome! Aja will be there this summer!

Cathy: Advanced Steel drums, Marching Band, ROBoTICS! And much, much more.

Cathy built amazing friendships with our girls. Even starting their own cheerleading team lol. Cathy is very giving of herself. She Played Ago-Ago, hand drums, and any surdo we threw her on she picked up.

Niomy: Freshmen from University High School, dance and drama!. Niomy jumped right in and got to work. She was nervous at first, but shined like no other. She took charge, making up routines for the kids to learn, taking over several times. Niomy will continue to volunteer over the summer

Our Wednesday Crew worked closely with our dancers. They played all of our songs and helped work out the kinks. They helped devolpe new songs, new breaks. These Teens also worked in small groups with the dancers to teach them the basics of the drums. They were around for lots of Arts projects and fun down times. They would play songs over and over for our dancers some weeks for about 2 hours.

ALL of our mentors have been dedicated and hungry to learn. They asked questions, looked to us for guidance. Some loved it so much they decided to stick around over the summer. We really have some amazing mentors. Hopefully our mentor program will continue to grow and more teens can get involved in something positive. Our first group of mentors have set the bar high. WE have been very blessed and honored to have every single of them. WE have learned so much about them individually and as a group. Thank you to them for helping CCS be amazing. With out their help and dedication this our group wouldn’t have been as big and as successful as it was.