The presentation portion of “Hearts for Hope” a fundraiser for Y-Now, a nationally recognized mentoring program for children with an incarcerated parent, took the audience captive Saturday night with Rebecca Hentz’s statistics and stories about the 17 kids mentored last year. The program boasts a 95 percent success rate keeping the kids it mentors out of the juvenile justice system, a feat of David and Goliath proportions considering the odds stacked against these kids.

Y-Now is one of three major programs at Safe Place according to Matt Reed, a determined red bearded guy with a twinkle in his eye on a mission as Safe Place Executive Director. Reed’s big ask for the evening was to replenish the $100,000.00 Y-Now lost in funding last year. Guests at the invite only night at John and Carol Clark’s beautiful home on a hill close to the Ohio River let their hearts do the talking when they filled out pledge forms for the program. The Clarks made an opening donation to be applied to transitional services, according to Reed. Such services may include one-on-one therapy, which may be exactly the ounce of prevention these kids need to get and stay on track.

Just ask Rebecca Hentz. Hentz, Y-Now Executive Director, said one child’s story and courage is indelibly etched in her mind and heart: an 11 year-old boy who believed his father abandoned him because his family could not bring themselves to tell him that his father was serving a death sentence. She said the child couldn’t name it but just felt like something was “off” when it came to his father. “About seven months into the program, we didn\\\'t feel like it made sense to keep it from the boy,” Hentz said.

Due to the work the program does with therapists and specialists, the family was able to tell the boy where his father was and why during an excruciating three hour meeting. “It was the hardest meeting I\\\'ve ever had,” Hentz said, but we believed we owed him the truth. She knew the program and family made the right decision when the boy thanked her for finally tell him the truth.

On March 20, join Reed, Hentz and Miss America Laura Kaepler at a breakfast to support Y-Now at the Olmstead. Kaeppeler, according to Reed, is a child of an incarcerated parent herself and has made the program her platform during her reign. What better combination is there of beauty, brains, determination and compassion? The organization seeks table hosts that can not only fill the table but help bridge the funding gap. A gap we can’t let the precious cargo that is these kids fall through. Ymcasafeplaceservices.org