Come meet this Seahawks legend at a benefit dinner for Tri-Cities youth mentorship

Legendary NFL coach and retired Seahawks quarterback Jim Zorn will be the keynote speaker at an inaugural fundraising dinner hosted by a Tri-Cities nonprofit.

Forge Youth Mentoring will host its “Forging Bright Futures” dinner 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 28, at Bethel Church in Richland.

Single tickets are $65, and funds will benefit the nonprofit’s mentorship program that connects adults with impressionable youths, ages 7 to 18. Money raised in the Tri-Cities will benefit local students.

“We want to invite people to celebrate the impact we can have on other people’s lives,” said Todd Kleppin, the organization’s co-founder and national executive director.

The event will feature a three-course meal, a drawing, giveaways, stories and highlights of mentoring successes, and a fireside chat and autograph session with the Washington Sports Hall of Famer.

The franchise’s first-ever starting quarterback, Zorn played with the ‘Hawks from 1976 to 1983 and was named NFC Offensive Rookie of the Year and team MVP during their inaugural season.

After his career as an NFL player, Zorn coached at Boise State, Utah State and the University of Minnesota.

He returned to the NFL in 1997 as an assistant coach for the Detroit Lions and later the Seahawks. Starting in 2008, he spent two seasons as the head coach of the Washington Redskins, now the Commanders. He’s also worked as a quarterback coach and XFL coach.

Youth mentoring

Forge Youth Mentoring serves 35 kids in the Tri-Cities and a total of 70 nationwide. There are currently about 20 children in the Tri-Cities who are on the waiting list to be paired with an adult.

The Tri-Cities nonprofit pairs youths, mostly from single-parent households or from the foster system, with a mentor who’s been vetted by the organization and shares similar interests. The children all share one common thing: They lack a mentor in their life or someone they can look up to.

“They’re not learning, they’re not rubbing shoulders learning how to become an adult and we’re paying for that as a society,” Kleppin said. “It’s really, for us, showing that kids are looking for guides in their life.”

Mentors spend at least one hour a week with their child doing activities that both find interesting. They play board games, go fishing, engage in a service project or work together on a hobby.

“It’s not complicated. It can be as simple as that. For mentors, it’s about exposing kids to new worlds,” Kleppin said. “It could be as easy as playing Sorry and asking each other questions.”