I met Rene Ruvalcaba, a big 17 year old boy looking for a way to make his mark on the world, at Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles. I had volunteered to conduct business management sessions at a program called "Overcoming Obstacles" for youth wanting to become entrepreneurs.

From the start I was impressed with Rene's sincerity. He came from an inner-city culture and readily admitted to having few role models. Before I knew it, Rene was becoming my mentee. That was almost seven years ago and we are still together today.

From this experience, and largely due to my relationship with Mr. Groovy and others in the program, I found my life's work. So, I sold my business and after a stint with an organization called "Communities In Schools / The LA Mentoring Partnership" I started my own Mentoring Agency called "Youth Mentoring Connection". We needed someone to assist one of our Program Managers, so we hired Mr. Groovy. He has joined me in my passion for helping others and is now making this his life's work, too (he still runs his silk-screening business on the side). In addition Mr. Groovy has become an official mentor to one youth, and an advisor to many of the other kids in our programs.

There are hundreds of stories like Mr. Groovy's, but there are thousands more kids that we haven't reached yet. To find out more about what we're doing and how you can help, please call or e-mail us.

> Read Mr. Groovy's story in his own words.