Aubrey Holdorf has always been civic-minded. She’s the sort of person you think of when you imagine any young person doing good work in a community. Holdorf’s sense of philanthropic responsibility even has a word in Japanese: “giri”, meaning “a sense of moral obligation, especially social or communal duty.” The challenge to maintaining this civic spirit, she learned after graduating from high school, was what most of us encounter in our early careers: “busyness.”
“Every year since high school I’ve looked for a volunteer position,” Holdorf says. “I want that to be a part of my life.” But school gave way to work and family obligations, and the hum-drum of day-to-day life expands like water, always filling its container. But now that she runs her own daycare business, the Thorntown native did what so many of us aspire to do. She settled in, developed a rhythm to her life, and once her business became stable enough to allow time for volunteering, she jumped on the opportunity to become a mentor.
“Matt [Wilson] shared a lot about mentoring and it was on my mind, so I looked at it more deeply,” she recalls. Her use of “deeply” is no coincidence. Her whole aura suggests that she takes a thoughtful approach to life’s choices and decisions, both big and small.
“Mentoring is a big decision,” says Matt Wilson, Executive Director of Boone County Mentoring. “But it doesn’t have to be a huge decision. Mentors like Aubrey need only spend an hour a week with their match. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but it makes a big difference in about the same amount of time people spend watching TV in just one evening.”
“It didn’t take me long to get matched, just a few months,” recalls Holdorf. “We were trying to find the perfect match, and Edith is it.” Edith is an 11-year-old who recently moved into Boone County. “She’s very spunky,” says Holdorf.
After formal introductions at BCMP’s office, the two met for the first time at Thorntown Park along with Edith’s mom. “We just talked about what this program looks like and ideas to do and chat about.”
Kids and teens of all ages come to Boone County Mentoring Partnership for all sorts of reasons. Edith is no exception. Her mom recognized that, as one of five kids (three brothers and one younger sister), she needed more one-on-one time with a young but older female role model.
About a week later the two met at Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch. “It was Christmas time, so we went and picked out gifts for our parents afterward,” Holdorf recalled. “She picked two cups.”
For some matches, just like with any two people involved, it can be awkward to make conversation at first. “She was very shy,” recalls Holdorf. “Her parents didn’t think she would be, but she was with me. I wondered, ‘Am I doing something wrong?’” But with each passing week, the two learned more about each other. “She’s comfortable talking to me about anything now.”
“I know little kids,” says Holdorf. “They show people different colors. But now, I feel like I’ve really met her. She’s a girly girl. We love getting our nails done, and getting our hair done. Going out to eat. In the summer, we’ll go to Turkey Run [State Park] and take long hikes.” Then, with a pause as if she’s thumbing through a catalog of Edith’s personality, Holdorf adds, “She’s picky about anything but pasta.”
For Holdorf, mentoring is everything she always wanted to do for her community and an extension of her work and her love for kids. Plus, she says, “Edith reminds me of me when I was younger.”
