By Matt Clevenger

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TROY — The Future Begins Today (TFBT) hosted a day of activities at Lost Creek Reserve on Wednesday, Oct. 18, holding a special Lunch Buddy Luncheon at the reserve’s Heritage Hall, followed by the annual TFBT Club Fall Family Event in the afternoon.

The Lunch Buddy Luncheon was attended by TFBT board members, guidance counselors and other officials from the Troy City Schools and members of the public interested in learning more about the program. The luncheon was held to promote the Lunch Buddy Program and recruit new volunteers to become Lunch Buddy mentors.

“The Lunch Buddy program is a mentoring program where we pair members of the Troy community with students in Troy schools,” TFBT Executive Director Kathryn Clevenger said. “They have lunch together once a month at the school; it offers the students someone else in the community besides a relative or teacher to look up to.”

The Lunch Buddy program was started more than 25 years ago, Clevenger said, and serves students in fourth-grade through high school. The program was recently re-started, after being canceled for several years due to COVID-19 restrictions in the schools.

“We’re basically re-building the program post-COVID, and recruiting Lunch Buddy mentors,” she said.

Several new mentors were recruited during the Lunch Buddy Luncheon.

“Lunch Buddy mentors must pass a background check through the Troy City Schools Board of Education office,” Clevenger said. “Once background checks are approved, then we can pair them with Lunch Buddy students.”

Following the Lunch Buddy Luncheon, TFBT also held its annual TFBT Club Fall Family Event at Lostcreek Reserve in the afternoon. Open to TFBT Club students and their families, the annual event serves to kick-off TFBT Club activities for the school year.

Approximately 100 students and family members attended the event, which featured hayrides, a visit to the reserve’s corn maze, raffles and refreshments provided by Tim Horton’s.

“Each family was also given a pumpkin donated by the Miami County Park District,” Clevenger said.

TFBT Club is open to fourth, fifth and sixth-grade students in Troy schools, and members meet weekly to learn life skills with TFBT advisors.

The Future Begins Today is a non-profit organization that supports nurturing, mentoring and scholarship programs for students in Troy. It was established over 25 years ago by local philanthropists, business leaders and educators, and is made possible through donor support. More information can be found online at www.thefuturebeginstoday.org.