Renovation fixer and television star Mike Holmes has some competition in Grade 5 student Nicholas Pengelley.
The 12-year-old recently gave woodworking safety tips to his peers at an after-school program run by Step-by-Step Child Development Society.
"Measure twice, cut once because you can't re-glue it," Pengelley told the other children sternly as he demonstrated the proper way of cutting a two-by-four.
Soon, the girls drifted away to other demos on sewing and crafts but some of the boys stuck around for the woodworking workshop, which Pengelley, a mentor in Step-by-Step's newest program, gave with equal measures of passion and patience.
Pengelley is one of three Como Lake middle school students who are mentors in the program for students aged 10 and up at the Scout Hall in Coquitlam's Blue Mountain Park. The other mentors are Caroline Pengelley, who is teaching sewing, and Angelina Gordo, the craft expert.
The mentors are passing on their skills to younger kids and, in return, get gifts such as recreation passes, so their participation in the program is more like a job.
"It's a great way to build confidence and it helps them organize their learning," said Debra Smith, executive director of Step-by-Step.
The organization has had to be creative to meet the changing needs of families over the years and the mentor program is just one of several new initiatives. Smith said it was developed to address the gap in after-school care for middle school kids, most of whom think they are too old to be supervised. Their parents, meanwhile, aren't ready to let their kids go home alone and so the program was developed to meet a 12- to 13-year-old's need for independence and their parents' comfort level.
"These kids don't want anything to do with daycare," Smith said, "but they may not be ready to be on their own."
It's just one of four programs Step-by-Step is launching this fall at the Blue Montain Scout Hall as it marks its 30th anniversary with new services for families. Smith said the organization is recruiting new partners and the Scout Hall location is on Coquitlam's west side, an area that hadn't been tapped.
There is also a new skills enhancement pre-school program starting up at the hall, in addition to the mentorship program, and an out-of-school care program, which has room for more kids, as well as a new family resource centre opening this month that will run daily from 10 to 11:30 a.m. with support from the United Way.
The skills enhancement program is for children age three to five years who are not currently receiving services from a speech and language or occupational therapist and who might need a boost in their fine or gross motor skills, or more opportunities for socializing with their peers, before kindergarten.
Smith said it's staffed by a child specialist, speech and language therapist and an occupational therapist and set up like an obstacle course with several stations.
"They have the children attend to certain tasks and learn to manipulate their body in space so they can handle the six hours of kindergarten or school," Smith said.
Strong Start facilitators in the area will soon get information on the program so they can refer parents whose children might be able to benefit from the extra individualized support, she said.
In the three decades that Step-by-Step has been around to provide programs and resources for families, much has changed and Smith said the organization is constantly adapting to meet demands for new services.
When it started in 1979, the society's mission was to provide programs and services for families with children with special needs and was based at Harbour View elementary in Coquitlam. It has since expanded to other areas of Coquitlam, Port Moody and Port Coquitlam and broadened its mandate to include all children.
"Here we are at 30 years, we've evolved and changed." Smith said.
More information can be found at www.step-by-step.ca.
