If you're a man and willing to bounce a basketball, Mentoring New Mexico would like to talk to you. This local nonprofit uses the lure of sports to engage third-grade boys in learning math — addition, subtraction, simple multiplication and division. For one hour a week, a class of boys spends time with male mentors, improving math and basketball skills.

"You don't have to be either a math or a basketball whiz to help. All you have to be is a man who has an hour a week to give to boys," said Gene Weisfeld, Mentoring New Mexico's executive director. Training and paperwork take about three hours to complete.

The program gives all boys in a class a chance to play basketball regardless of their ability. They learn about teamwork and have positive male role models.

"Last year we started with some boys who were afraid to touch the basketball," Weisfeld said. "Three months later, they played a game against another team. The progress in their confidence was heart warming."

Mentoring New Mexico also has traditional mentors, spending one hour a week with students, in Agua Fría, Gonzales, Kaune and Salazar elementary schools. An interview and background check are required. Mentors are placed in a school convenient to home or work and may request the age of the child. "Mentors become friends with a kid who could really use a friend," Weisfeld said.

For more information, call Weisfeld at 988-1611 or e-mail mnm@cnsp.com.

The Santa Fe Symphony has another take on mentoring. The symphony's guild, FanFare, brings music outreach programs to local schools and sponsors a music mentoring program.

When Matthew Frauwirth moved to Santa Fe seven years ago, he looked for volunteer opportunities and signed up with the HOSTS (Help One Student to Succeed) program at the Santa Fe Public Schools. He is a reading mentor for students at César Chávez Elementary School.

Frauwirth thought that if mentors could help students in reading and math, they should be able to do the same in music. He queried music teachers, who told him that when students participate in ensemble music at school, either band or chorus, they are less likely to drop out.

"Students who may be on the margin academically but enjoy their music classes have a reason to stay in school," Frauwirth said.

Later, if students find they don't have the technical abilities to keep up with their peers in music class, they become frustrated and may want to quit, much like students can become frustrated if they are behind in reading or math.

Using the HOSTS program as a model, Frauwirth and FanFare created the music mentors program four years ago with one mentor. Today there are five mentors, two of whom drive weekly from Albuquerque to work with music students. They cover percussion, trumpet, trombone, tuba, woodwinds and voice.

Mentors include Santa Fe Symphony musicians, retired music teachers and college students who are music majors.

"Mentors work with students one-on-one, coaching them on their technical skills to bring them up to the level of their peers so they feel good about being in the group, rather than embarrassed," Frauwirth said.

American Symphony Orchestra League last year recognized the Santa Fe Symphony's music mentor program as one of the six best music education programs in the United States.

The mentors are paid a stipend for their work. Anyone interested in making a donation to support the music mentoring program can call the symphony office at 983-3530.

Valerie Ingram is the Development Director at the Santa Fe Community Foundation and can be reached at vingram@santafecf.org or 505-988-9715, ext. 4.