As soon as the announcements came on, Isabelle Kenhard put away her binder and started to listen. As it went on they mentioned this new program at Milford, something about helping kids.

The program is called Huron Valley Buddies. It piqued her interests, and she soon went down to the student services room to sign up.

Huron Valley Buddies is a great new volunteer program for members of Milford High School and Muir Middle School. It is a program solely focused on helping elementary-aged students.

A desire to help others is the only requirement. It is the first year this program is being used, and Mrs. Lutz, who is in charge of applications and directing the volunteers at Milford said, “I think it’s a great opportunity, for the elementary kids as well as the older ones.”

The program is mainly focused around helping students with their homework and studies. The subjects you can choose to help with are math, reading, and writing. You can assist with all three subjects or work with individual subjects. You can sign up any weekday except for Friday.

Students say they like getting to choose because it allows them to help with their favorite subjects and not have to go everyday after school.

Many students say they are very excited for the program to start. “I can’t wait to start (helping out). I feel like I might actually be able to make a change in a kids learning,” said Kenhard, a freshman at Milford High.

The application form has a series of questions on it to help you get the best fit. Because each schools program is different, they encourage you to fill out the form to the best of your ability. There’s even a comment section for you to write anything you enjoy doing. If you happen to love to dance there might also be a kid who loves it too, and it will help match you up better with a buddy.

“There are many students that are just so far behind, and I think it will help be more comfortable and successful being helped by other kids,” said Lutz.

The schools available for elementary volunteering are Heritage, Highland, Johnson, and Kurtz elementary. Each schools program is run by the school’s principal. Before they decided to try this new program out, each school used to find their own mentors, but they agreed to open it up to other students and try it this year.

So far, many students have signed up, the majority of them being freshmen. Kenhard said shes glad she gets to start signing up as a freshman. “I think it will be a great experience (for me),” she said. “I hope to help my buddy in any way I can.”

Students start mentoring in October and run through May, but you don’t have to volunteer the whole time. It is broken up into sections from Oct-Nov, Dec-Jan, Feb-March, and April-May. Students typically start after school around 4 P.M.

One benefit of signing up is that it is volunteering. It does look great on a college application. But that’s not the only reason why you should sign up. “I honestly didn’t really think about that,” Kenhard said. “I just thought it would be fun”

So far it has been a very well rounded group. Students haven’t typically been favoring any schools, and although there have been lots of freshmen, there has also been many sign ups from older students.

This program has many benefits for any kind of student, and for more info, either contacts Mrs. Lutz at Milford, or Mr. Hurst at Muir. For later news and information regarding placement, check out Huron Valley Buddies at @HuronValleyBuds on twitter.