MEXICO – A fledgling substance abuse counseling service has awarded its first scholarship to a young mother who has returned to school to earn a degree in human services.
First Light Counseling Services presented the $500 scholarship to Melissa Munzner of Rumford this week. She was chosen from six applicants. She is attending the Rumford/Mexico University Center, located next door to the counseling business. She is majoring in mental health and human services, and with her husband, Robert, is the parent of two children.
Each semester Jim Mello of the counseling service plans to award a similar scholarship to a student attending the Rumford/Mexico University Center, in memory of his father, Jessie Mello.
Munzner is almost two-thirds of the way through the bachelor of science program. She plans to use the funds to buy textbooks.
The counseling service opened its doors in March, a year or so after Mello’s father, who fought alcoholism for most of his life, had died. Jim Mello used a small inheritance to open the business.
Partly because he comes from a family with three generations of alcoholics, he became an alcohol and drug counselor for abusers and their families. He also has served as a pastor for Seventh Day Adventist Churches in the Jay and Calais areas. He and his wife, Aishah Wolfstone, are both certified in substance abuse counseling. Eventually, they hope to expand to a service offering counseling for other mental health issues, as well.
The scholarship is a way for the counseling service to serve the community as well as the people who are counseled, said Mello.
He said the service has almost a reciprocal agreement with the University Center. The school makes referrals to the counseling service and the service has now begun giving scholarships to a student attending the center.
The counseling service is located in the basement of St. Theresa’s Catholic Church.
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