For the past three years, Pat O’Keefe, 66, of Dowagiac, has served the Five Star after-school program as a volunteer.

The program is open to middle schoolers and helps to train youth for academic and job success in an environment where mentors step up to help. As a coach, O’Keefe helps to mentor a wide scope of students, from student athletes to at-risk youth.

The program started in a school in Elkhart, Indiana, in 2005, and grew from there. The Dowagiac program currently serves 94 students.

In his experience as a volunteer, O’Keefe said he has seen students’ grade point averages rise and develop the skills to become not only a leader in the classroom, but a leader in their community.

Can you talk about what your role is as a coach?

We call ourselves coaches because we believe volunteers come when they can, when they want to be there. But coaches show up for every practice. They show up for every meeting. We have coach’s meetings before and after the session to talk about anything that might have happened during the day. They do the things that others don’t see being done to achieve results.

We challenge them to get their grades up and we work with them. We have core principles that we teach them: respect, responsibility and integrity. These principles will help them to become better students and actually just better people and community members.

We could have more kids, but we need more volunteers to staff the program. We are working with the college right now to partner with them. We were blessed to have six college students come and work with us this year. Part of my role is also helping to recruit more volunteers.

What drew you to volunteer for the program?

I believe in the vision. The vision of making these kids grow, and letting them know and encouraging them [so that] they see there are no obstacles that they overcome with hard work and perseverance. Part of our goal is to help reduce disciplinary referrals in the school. The Five Star program is very data driven and we understand the statistics that are happening in the school system. In general, that there are a number of drop outs and being a former business person and having different companies, I see that we are training and deploying the next generation of employees. We are here to help and to let them know that they can become more than what their environment may tell them where they are at.

What do you enjoy about your volunteer work?

I enjoy watching the statistic change. Being there every week, and spending some time with the students and watching them challenge themselves on the grades. I am 66 years old and I still enjoy [it]. I am their biggest target out there when we play dodgeball. I will still go out there and play. I think being a retired person, it gives me purpose.

Given the need for more volunteers in the program, what would you say to encourage others to participate as a coach?

I believe there is a need. For me, I want to learn and I can learn from the kids and also teach. I can also encourage the kids. It amazes me how many volunteers that I will talk to after they have done a season that will say ‘I wish we would have had something like this when I was in school. I am really getting some stuff out of this and realizing things I need to work on. This engages people in the culture that were living in to make a difference, and that is why I would really recommend it. If you want to make a difference, this is the place to do it.