Disruptive, violent and habitually truant might be a way to describe some students. But one Panama City school is turning to a Gulf Power employee and others to help remove those labels.

Willie Johnson, a Gulf Power employee for the past 30 years, is part of a mentoring program at New Horizon Learning Center and works hard to help struggling students get what they need. The program includes about 60 volunteer mentors and Johnson has been in the program since 2006.

“The mentoring program receives all of its support through donations,” Johnson said. “That age is such an important time in a young person’s life. Most of the kids just need an outlet where they can talk to a neutral party, someone other than a parent or teacher.”

The alternative school was created in 1997 for middle school and high school students with a history of behavior problems.  In addition to encouraging employees to be involved in the community, Gulf Power also recently donated $1,000 to the school.

The mentors meet with their assigned students one hour every week to talk about how they are doing and discuss any difficulties they may be having.

“We want to make them feel that they really matter and are a part of their community,” Johnson said. “The greatest feeling is when these kids are able to go back to a regular school or are able to graduate and become productive citizens.”

The Gulf Power donation will help pay for incentive field trips for students who are doing well in the school. Some of the recent field trips included visits to the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola and Florida’s state capital in Tallahassee.

“This program is a great way to help out our community,” Johnson said. “It’s an investment that you can’t measure when you change the lives of young people.” 

Gulf Power Company is an investor-owned electric utility with all of its common stock owned by Atlanta-based Southern Company. Gulf Power serves more than 430,000 customers in eight counties throughout Northwest Florida. The company’s mission is to safely deliver affordable, reliable and environmentally responsible electric service to our customers while working to improve the communities we serve. Visit online at GulfPower.com or on the company’s Facebook page, “Gulf Power Company.”