Kids Now is a free after-school group mentoring program that focuses on empowering children to overcome obstacles. Since its founding in 1999, Kids Now has helped more than 13,000 Grades 7 and 8 children in Ontario, Alberta and New Brunswick.
“The Kids Now messages are great, they motivate the kids to try and reach their dreams,” said MacLennan. “It gives them confidence to go out and push towards their goals.”
That’s the kind of support MacLennan received over the years which helped her win an Olympic gold medal in trampoline at last summer’s London Olympics.
But dreaming of the Olympics since childhood wasn’t always easy.
“Reaching a big goal you’re going to face challenges. It wasn’t an easy path for me to stand up there on that platform,” said MacLennan.
“One of the best pieces of advice that I got while growing up was no matter how many times you fall get back up and don’t let it defeat you. I fell a lot, literally fell off the trampoline, but because of my dream and because of that desire to march in with the Canadian flag on my back and to be part of that magical moment, in those moments of fear that desire got me through.”
It’s that attitude, and to a lesser extent the gold medal, that Kids Now looks for in mentors.
“To have someone like Rosie who’s had a lifetime of training and learning, ups and downs — the challenges — to reach that goal and succeed at it is a great example for young children around Canada,” said Paula Sanchez, Kids Now’s director of national programs. “It’s that winning attitude in life that we want to empower our kids with. Basically we empower them with life success skills to make positive choices in life.”
The common obstacles facing children with Kids Now focuses on, according to St. Luigi’s volunteer mentor Laura Purdon, are self-esteem, communication, conflict resolution and stress.
“We talk about and do little activities about self-esteem, communication, conflict resolution and stress management just to get them through those big challenges that they’ll face,” said Purdon, who began her third 12-week program the day MacLennan visited St. Luigi.
“Although I guess I could call myself a little bit successful she is far more successful than I am so she is a good example of using the skills that I teach.”
And that’s the second component of the Kids Now program. Along with instilling confidence, the program also coaches students to set and achieve tangible goals.
But MacLennan wants to be more than an example to students. She wants to be their inspiration.
“Hopefully by sharing some of the lessons that I’ve learned they can take them with them and incorporate them into reaching their goals,” said MacLennan. “There is a lot of factors outside of your control and if you focus on what you can do each and every day working towards your goal that’s the important thing.”