After a three year absence due to lack of funds, the program Heroes and Cool Kids has finally returned to our school district. The mentoring program, aimed at helping middle school students make healthy life choices, is composed of MHS student athletes who are selected by their coaches. These students visit the Madison Junior School three times over the course of the program to talk to eighth grade students about nutrition, bullying, drugs and alcohol, and high school.

The mentors completed their first visit this past Wednesday. It focused on bonding activities to familiarize the students with their peers and their mentors. “It was cool to see how they looked up to us,” junior Emma Blackwell commented. They also focused on nutrition.

According to many mentors, the most helpful part for the eighth graders was when they were allowed to ask any questions they had about the workings of the high school anonymously. “It is important to make sure that the incoming freshmen are comfortable with themselves and the transition into high school,” senior mentor Kristina Qualbin stated. She answered every type of question from “How long is lunch?” to “Will the upperclassmen beat us up?” “It was funny because I remember having the same worries myself,” Emma Blackwell noted. All of the mentors hope to alleviate these fears and teach the eighth grade students how to deal with some of the pressures that will accompany them to high school.