January 25, 2023

Supply the Change: Jet Linx and TeamMates Mentoring

With our emphasis on local service and core values that include compassion and selflessness, it’s only natural that Jet Linx team members support the communities in which we live and work. We take pride in partnerships that benefit our local communities, and we seek to make a positive impact by engaging with nonprofit organizations.

This January, Jet Linx was proud to host leaders from the Nebraska-based TeamMates Mentoring program for a new mentor recruitment event. Denny Walker, Jet Linx Founder, has a long-standing relationship with this school-based volunteer organization, having served as an advocate for the power of mentoring and the impact of TeamMates for over 20 years. TeamMates serves over 9,000 students across Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa, and Kansas, including all Omaha-area school districts.

Over 30 Jet Linx team members, including nearly a dozen mentors currently involved in TeamMates, attended the luncheon to learn more about mentoring from TeamMates leaders, including TeamMates CEO DeMoine Adams, and from one another. Jet Linx supports its mentors by offering an hour of time each week to spend volunteering and meeting with their designated mentee at the mentee’s school. During that hour of time, Jet Linx mentors provide support, lend a listening ear, or simply just play a fun game (the most popular being UNO!) with their mentee.

“No one who has been involved in this program has ever told me they have regretted the time they invest,” Walker noted.

Current TeamMates mentor Sammi Finken, Jet Linx Senior Digital Marketing Specialist, has been paired with the same student for over six years, and read from a handwritten letter her mentee wrote early in their time together. “I love spending time with you, playing a game and having fun is amazing when I am with you. To me, I love when it comes close to being Friday afternoon. I want to reach that goal to have you and only you as my mentor until high school.”

Other mentors at the event reflected on TeamMates from the perspective of a mentee. Jet Linx Crew Coordinator Brianna Fleek was a TeamMates mentee herself while in school, and saw immediate value in taking on the role of mentor when she joined Jet Linx. “I loved every second of my mentee experience,” Fleek said. “There was a lasting impact from TeamMates that I was thrilled to see Jet Linx support when I began working here.”

The stories and statistics shared at the event yielded an immediate and positive response, with three additional Jet Linx mentors joining TeamMates in the weeks that followed, and many others planning to apply.

“Every mentor has a story,” said Walker. “Mentoring enhances your life.”

Jet Linx Founder Denny Walker shared his experience at the event as a long-time TeamMates mentor and supporter.

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