Long Reach Hall at Maine Maritime Museum was crowded on Thursday as more than 100 community members gathered to share a meal and to learn more about Young Life Midcoast, a mentorship program for local high school students.

Young Life, a nationwide ministry based in Colorado, started up in Bath last fall and has grown to include four to five youth leaders, committee members and a growing number of teens in the Midcoast area.

Without being affiliated with a particular church or denomination, the program includes “Campaigners,” a Bible study for students interested in growing in their faith, and “Club,” which is an opportunity for teens to invite their friends to participate in some fun activities.

Committee Chairman Sam Francis said that his wife, Ruth, had noticed two high school girls picking up pepper spray and Mace at the local hardware store one day in preparation for the school year and felt that “something needed to be done” in the community. After learning about Young Life, they decided to get involved.

“Young Life … provides kids with really good adult role models that become like mentors and show that kids can just have good healthy fun without drugs or alcohol … and the third thing is (to) introduce them to the person of Jesus Christ,” he said.

On Thursday, attendees were invited to support the program, as funds would go toward hiring a staff member for the program, as well as helping students attend a camp at Lake Champion in New York.

“Everyone is really supportive and nice,” student Emily Whitney said of the group. “It feels like a family.”

Daniel Mills, a junior at Morse High School, found that he was able to connect with other Christians at his school through the program.

“I enjoy that we’re just allowed to be ourselves – we’re allowed to be silly, which is awesome,” he said. “And our leaders support that. They’re like, ‘Be who you want to be.’ You don’t have to fit into the crowd … you know, create your own crowd.”

Keynote speaker Rick Rogan, a Young Life director of the Northeast region, spoke about how the program had influenced him as a teen, especially while growing up without a father.

He recalled how his Young Life mentor had supported him during his high school soccer games.

“He was the one that said ‘Rick, good game’ or complimented me … because he cared for some kid whose dad was gone and that mattered to me,” Rogan said. “So when I went to a Young Life Club, and (he) talked about Jesus, I listened because he logged time with me.”

Rogan hoped that students and their families would also be affected in a positive way through Young Life, just as he and his family had been.

“What we want to do (as) leaders and staff is to walk alongside kids with their parents and say, ‘you know, understand that there’s a God who loves you,'” he said. “My mom began to understand the love of God when me and my brothers started understanding the love of God. It changed our whole family.”

Young Life is also a place where students are “loved and accepted,” Rogan said.

“They just have to show up – they don’t have to perform, they don’t have to look a certain way, they don’t have to be good at something,” he said.

To learn more about the program, contact Brandon and Robin Murray at (207) 798-1820.

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