Time is the greatest measure of how much people or don't change. As you may know, VIP Sacramento is the only program in Sacramento and Yolo counties that specifically recruits attorneys to mentor men and women on parole. Last Spring, our advisory committee met to plan for the annual VIP recognition luncheon in May. When we started talking about extraordinary community service, advisory committee member Judge David DeAlba mentioned the name of a Kathy Somerton. I had never heard of Kathy, but he assured me she used to be the VIP program director years ago. I agreed to try to track her down, thinking it wouldn't be too tough, thanks to those helpful folks at Google.

Indeed, I found a few Kathy Somertons, in different parts of the country. Fortunately, Judge De Alba also remembered the name of Kathy's husband so I was very excited when I discovered information on two people with appropriate names, residing together in Sacramento County. Unfortunately, I could not contact Kathy directly, but eventually I managed to leave a message with someone who seemed convinced, after several minutes of talking, that I was not a psycho or a stalker, or worse yet, a psycho stalker. Great! I had accomplished the first step. Now it was just a matter of time, waiting to hear from Kathy.

While I waited, I tried to figure out Kathy's affiliation with VIP. I looked through old records from previous program directors. There was no Kathy Somerton. I asked VIP staff who had been with the organization in excess of 10 years. Nothing. However, in seeking information for another project, I asked Carol Prosser of the Sacramento County Bar Association for photocopies of old Sacramento Lawyer articles. She provided material that was nearly a quarter of a century old, and guess who authored those articles from the 1980s, Kathy Somerton! That's when I put the pieces together. In the 1970s and 80s, VIP had a program for mentoring juvenile parolees in Sacramento. Lack of funding caused the program to close, but it was later reborn as the VIP we now know.

When Kathy and I finally made contact, we had a wonderful time talking. I invited her to our annual luncheon, but she wasn't able to make it, so we decided to meet for lunch. After a couple of scheduling mix ups, we finally got together. In addition to Kathy and myself the guests were Judge De Alba and Judge Renard Shepard both former VIP mentors and Judge Shepard's wife, Lillian Shek. When they all greeted each other, it was obvious that these old friends were very excited to see one another. They had a lot of information to share about how each had spent the last two decades. When they started talking about the days when they were all involved in VIP, I envisioned Judge De Alba and Judge Shepard as recent law school graduates and VIP mentors.

While listening to Kathy, Judge DeAlba, and Judge Shepard reminisce about their VIP experiences, I realized something. Twenty or more years ago, these folks were involved in helping others turn their lives around, and the experience was still vivid in their minds. In fact, many of the mentees had managed to keep in touch with their former mentors and never seemed to forget the role their mentors played in their success.

As VIP Sacramento Program Director Community Service during the last three years, I have met many former parolees who have turned their lives around, become vital members of our society, and continue to maintain contact with their mentors. To hear tales of people re-surfacing to connect with their VIP mentors from decades past just reiterates to me the importance that mentoring has always had and, I believe, always will.

As lunch ended and we departed, I was filled with the warmth and happiness of seeing old friends reunited. Remaining with me from that very special meeting is the knowledge that the good we create as mentors does not last for a few mere moments, but through entire lifetimes.

If you are interested in learning more about VIP, or would like to become a VIP mentor, please contact Angela S. Tillotson, program director, by phone at 916.324.4141, ext. 259, by email at vip-sacramento@vipmentors.org, or visit the VIP website at vipmentors.org.

November / December 2005