YSS Organizes ‘Mentoring Madness on Main Street’

On May 5, YSS held the first-ever “Mentoring Madness on Main Street” event in partnership with 14 businesses in downtown Ames.

The event included a scavenger hunt throughout Main Street, in which YSS Mentoring pairs had to find letters in each of the storefront’s windows. Along with the scavenger hunt, the pairs were also able to pick up gifts and participate in activities in some of the stores.

“Any opportunity to partner with YSS definitely benefits us and benefits YSS. Even though we come at it in different ways, we’re just trying to help the youth. It’s a good partnership,” said Danielle Ziegler, an employee at the Ames Public Library.

YSS mentors and mentees received flowers at Evert’s Flowers & Gifts, free books at Dog-Eared Books, cookies at Great Harvest Bakery, and swag bags at the Ames Public Library. Once the pairs finished the scavenger hunt, they were awarded gift certificates for various participating businesses.

“We had a good amount of people that seemed excited about grabbing a free book, and even those who weren’t at first came back and said, ‘You know, maybe I do want this,’ or ‘This sounds like something my sibling would be interested in.’ It was great seeing the children interested in reading,” said Jill Zmolek, event coordinator at Dog-Eared Books.

Other participating businesses include No Escape Iowa, Cafe Diem, Life Distilled, Dahlberg Portrait, Chocolaterie Stam, Photosynthesis, Rieman Music, Duck Worth Wearing, Marmalade Moon, and Great Plains Pizza.