
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, October 28, 1993                   TAG: 9310280390
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: S-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MELISSA AMOS YOUNG SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

YOUNG LAWYERS SPONSOR YOUTH MENTOR PROGRAM

The Virginia Bar Association Young Lawyers' section, in cooperation with Roanoke city schools' education partnership, is sponsoring the Roanoke Mentor Program for a second year.

The program teaches drug awareness and the value of education.

Under the program, 55 lawyers work with 45 fourth-grade classes. Mentors visit classes once a month and discuss how the justice system works, different law-related jobs and the importance of education.

Mentors also ask judges, sheriffs, deputies, drug enforcement officials and legislators to be guest speakers and work with school Drug Abuse Resistance Effort officers to arrange programs and field trips.

Victor Cardwell, a Woods, Rogers & Hazlegrove associate who participated in the program last year, was asked to return to Lincoln Terrace Elementary School.

"We're not looking at the program as some type of panacea, that making 10 visits during a school year will help every child; but if we can help one or maybe two children, if they see some possibility in their futures, that's what it's all about," Cardwell said.

The program's coordinating committee includes: Cheryl Watson Smith with Mundy, Rogers & Frith; Ray Bird of Salem; Melissa Amos Young with Gentry, Locke, Rakes & Moore; Abigail L. Perkins and Victor O. Cardwell, both with Woods, Roger & Hazlegrove; Phyllis Cundiff, principal, and Carla Brown, both with Grandin Court Elementary School; Pyllis Satterfield, guidance counselor at Westside Elementary School; and Suzanne Avis with the educational partnership office.

by CNB