Dr. Claudio Cerullo attends Greater Wilmington Mentoring Commission Mentor Recruitment Kickoff

This noise, this plea, became the voice of thousands of children, and it came through the well-known mouths of Senator Tom Carper, Mayor James M. Baker of Wilmington, Mr. James A. Wolfe, President and CEO of the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce and Dr. Claudio Cerullo, Director of the Delaware Mentoring Council.

There were 72 people in attendance.  Some major players included representatives from:

o All 4 school districts in the Greater Wilmington Area
o JPMorgan Chase
o WSFS Bank
o Blue Cross Blue Shield
o Delaware Hospice
o AstraZeneca
o Community Organizations
o Faith-Based Community
o Senator Tom Carper, Mayor James Baker, Mr. Jim Wolfe

Speeches were captivating, concrete and personal.  While Senator Carper spoke on mentoring in his own life, experiences he had being a mentor himself, and how important it is to be a mentor, Mr. James Wolfe appealed to the business community, making the ask to recruit 500 mentors, making the challenge to those present to make a difference for children and to make a difference for the future.

Mayor Baker was the last to present as a guest speaker.  Wilmington is his city, and while he loves his city, he fears for it as well.  Mayor Baker brought tough topics to the surface; the drop-out rate, gang violence, reading levels, incarceration increasing in Wilmington’s youth and the fact that these children will continue down the wrong path unless there is a caring adult standing in their way.

Dr. Claudio Cerullo made the introduction and finished with closing remarks; stressing the drop-out rate, gang violence and the return on investment of time for saving a child’s life…it’s priceless.  Cerullo provided simplistic directions for necessary steps to take, information to follow-up with and reiterating the ask again that Mr. James Wolfe had previously made.