A Lifetime of Mentoring — Chris McClung
For some people, mentoring just seems to be in their blood. The oldest out of all his siblings and cousins, Chris McClung interacted with youth at an early age. By the time he was in high school, he was already helping coach sports and mentor youth through a local program.
Originally, he says he did the youth mentoring to add to his college applications, but he quickly realized it was more than that. “I enjoy spending time with kids. I was always helping and playing with my younger cousins,” he adds, so mentoring came very natural and easy for him.
Once in college, he continued to help coach sports, including coaching track for a year. He spent a couple of years living in Coos Bay, Oregon, where he coached track and field and basketball, and volunteered as a mentor at the local Boys & Girls Club. He explains that the small town is a coastal community that has been hurt by the decline of the logging industry, and the kids there come from mostly blue-collar families.
Youth Mentoring in Vancouver, WA
When Chris moved back up to Vancouver, WA, he looked for a way to continue volunteering. Great Life Mentoring came up when he was searching online for opportunities. He decided to give them a shot. Upon completing training, he chose what he says was the “toughest looking kid to mentor,” because he felt up to the task.
That was in 2011. Clearly, he was up to the task. And while his friend has since moved away, Chris still reaches out to see how he is doing. But that wasn’t the end of Chris’s time with Great Life Mentoring. In 2021, Chris joined the Board of Directors and currently serves as the Board’s Treasurer given his background in accounting.
Even though he had mentoring experience already, Chris credits the thorough training process at Great Life Mentoring with giving him the skills and tools to be a success at what he calls “a very important job.”
“I wanted to stick with this program for as long as I could to help the program,” he says. “GLM staff are very passionate about their work, and everything they are doing motivated me to want to be a part of it and continue helping. It was the only mentoring program I saw that helps low-income children with behavioral issues.”
“It’s a small price to pay, the time commitment, the activities, when you know what they’ve gone through and that they have to deal with,” shares Chris. “The success stories, feedback and comments I get from other Board members makes it worthwhile and is a reminder of what we’re trying to accomplish – it’s the reason why we’re doing what we’re doing.”
Chris has used all he has learned in his career and home life, too. He works as an accounting controller in the Pacific Northwest wood products industry and mentors new accountants in his spare time. He also says being a mentor has helped him raise his two crazy kids.
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