The WGME 13 & Rotary Bottle Drive for Mentoring is joined by Shaw’s Supermarkets and Seltzer & Rydholm/Pepsi to promote mentoring for youth.

Redeemable bottles and cans will be collected at the Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 10, to support children and teens in the Oxford Hills area receiving the gift of a mentor. Free collection bags and stickers are available at the Child Health Center, 199 Main St. and from Rotarians.

According to Child Health Center’s Big Brothers Big Sisters program coordinators, in 2003 more than 100 young people in the Oxford Hills benefited from one-on-one relationships and another 100 benefited from group and after school programs. The mentoring programs offered through Big Brothers Big Sisters are mentoring relationships that help give young people the confidence, resources and skills they need to reach their potential in life. Such programs are able to continue and expand, in part, through community fund-raising initiatives such as the bottle drive.

According to Maine Mentoring Partnership, “The bottle drive is an opportunity in Maine to join together as a community to support mentoring by raising awareness, friends and funds.

All funds raised will benefit mentoring at both local and statewide levels.

For more information, call the Child Health Center at 743-7035.