Professor Emeritus of Biology David Polley and his wife, Debbie, were sorting out what to do with their time as retirees when Debbie came across a profile in the Crawfordsville Journal Review of a boy who wanted to learn how to swim.
Something clicked.
“When Debbie read that to me, I said, ‘Let’s teach him how to swim,’” David recalls.
Today the Polleys are paired with Dakota through JUMP, a juvenile mentoring program offered through Montgomery County’s Youth Service Bureau. They spend about two hours per week with him.
For their first meeting they walked to Sugar Creek to search for crinoids. They got sidetracked when David showed Dakota how to skip stones, something the boy had never done before.
“He worked at it like it was his job,” David says. They spent the rest of their time that day skipping stones.
From there, things blossomed. Yes, he’s learned to swim—freestyle and backstroke—and they’ve added activities like the monthly build project at Home Depot, the Children’s Museum in Indianapolis, a Little Giants basketball game, and the joy of making an electromagnet out of a battery, wire, and a screwdriver.
“I missed seeing the world through a child’s eyes,” David says. “When our son was growing up, he would see things that allowed me to see in a new way or to revisit things in an old way. I missed that, and I like being able to share what I know. Dakota has a lot of interests that we have, so it’s fun to take him places and show him things.”
Gifted with the luxury of time, the Polleys bask in the glow of a connection without having to be parental.
“It’s wonderful that he is somewhat attached to us,” Debbie says. “When we finally figured out that we wanted to expand his horizons a bit, then it clicked for me. You see him taking all of this stuff in and remembering it afterwards. It’s fun and it gives me a great sense of satisfaction.”