The Mentors Care Podcast

Dena Petty comes full circle when she interviews her own personal mentor and one of Mentors Care’s founding supporters more than 11 years ago. Her conversation with Lead Pastor Bruce Prindle of First Baptist Church of Midlothian reveals the wisdom and advice he gave to Dena that launched Mentors Care on the right trajectory to success. 

This episode is a reminder of the impact we have in people's lives as we listen mo...

Host Dena Petty sits down a leadership guru from Guatemala!

Now a transplanted Texan, Carolina Donis-Lockwood is an international conference speaker, attorney, and counseling psychologist with almost two decades of experience in cultural transformation through values.

She currently runs global operations for the John Maxwell Leadership Foundation and has been part of the Country Transformation Initiative (CTI) s...

Host Dena Petty sits down with one of Mentors Care's most visible volunteers--Vernell Dooley. He's the Chief of Police in Glenn Heights and serves as a mentor at nearby Red Oak High School.

Dooley admits that while some weeks in law enforcement are strenuous and difficult, they always seem to brighten up after he invests that one hour a week with his assigned student at Red Oak High School. 

His conversa...

Fore!...Mentors Care just wrapped up its Inaugural Charity Golf Tournament at Mira Vista Country Club (Ft. Worth). It was a huge success as dozens of supporters, volunteers and coordinators and mentors joined together on the golf links to raise funds for the expanding needs of Mentors Care.

Host Dena Petty was busy running the tournament so she sent one of her faithful lieutenants--Sean Byers--out on the golf course with a...

Leisha Crowe is a long time mentor of Mentors Care.  She is a graduate of Midlothian High School and owns her own Remax Real Estate Company.  She shares the importance of giving back to the community.

Leisha found out about Mentors Care through a friend.  The young student she mentored was going through rebellion and being in and out of trouble.  She found as a mentor it is best to love them where they are and not judge.  She shares...

Dena interviews someone you are likely familiar with because not only is he the founder and CEO of John Houston Custom Homes overseeing the planning and development of more than 600 single-family homes a year but he is the founder of a number of companies under the umbrella of John Houston Family of Companies. John is a huge philanthropist giving his time and support to several charities and missions through the JHReach Fund servin...

DeShandra Newton, a former Mentors Care student, shares her story of perseverance and never giving up, a motto she lives by. She has received a Bachelors's and Masters's degree from Tarleton State and is currently working for Capital One. 

While she was a student at Midlothian High School, she entered Mentors Care and was dealing with several significant personal struggles.  Her mother was in jail, and DeShandra and her si...

In this episode, Dena Petty sits down with Karen Fitzgerald, Assistant Superintendent of Communications and Strategic Operations for the Midlothian Independent School District.  Raised in a family of educators, Karen has a natural passion for seeing students succeed. She and Dena discuss the critical role that public schools play in identifying children considered "at-risk" and the best ways to point them toward a brighte...

Charlie Hubbard,  Vice President of Field Operations Midwest with AT&T shares his journey with us from climbing on telephone poles to the climb in a well known and successful company. From the time he could, he threw newspapers and always held a job.  

From humble beginnings to management, Charlie shares the value of hard work and learning all you can from each and every opportunity.  He did not have a love for school as a kid b...

In this inspiring and heart-warming episode, Dena Petty talks to former Mentors Care student LaDesha Jones (class of 2020). LaDesha's story of survival and triumph sheds light on the dark secret of domestic abuse. 

Join us to hear LaDesha’s story of triumph over seemingly hopeless circumstances following the loss of her mother to domestic violence and how having a mentor helped turn her life in an upward trajectory. L...

In this bonus episode, Dena Petty talks with Lead Pastor Demetrius McClendon of One Church (Midlothian, Texas). The African-American preacher--better known as Pastor “Mac” to his friends and parishioners--shares timely wisdom and perspective about the recent racial discord affecting many American communities. They openly discuss how to changed deep-seated toxic ideologies that pose a barrier to unity in our communities.

Since t...

Executive Director of Ellis County Children's Advocacy Center Leslie Deen shares with us how to work with children in crisis. Recently, she conducted a training session for Mentors Cares volunteers titled Resilience where she showed how success can look different for each person. This enlightening seminar was extremely beneficial in equipping mentors to be even more effective during their one-on-one meetings with students.

In t...

Charles Frame, an entrepreneur with a heart for serving others, shares the value and importance of building relationships. Serving on the School Board for Maypearl Independent School District for 15 years, Frame has witnessed the difference that relationships have on people. He says relationships build communities.  

Q Ministry Project is a ministry that Frame started to help those in his local community. The project helps young peo...

Licensed Masters Social Worker and Mentor Coordinator Sarah Martin shares her passion for helping troubled young people make their buried hopes for the future into reality. 

As a volunteer mentor for Mentors Care in its infancy, Sarah’s mother-in-law witnessed firsthand the undeniable success of students in the program and knew right away that somehow Sarah was meant to be part of the movement. So she introduced Sarah to M...

This episode could be called “All in the Family” as co-host Dena Petty sits down with her son Bryce. Many sports fans will recognize the name Bryce Petty: retired NFL quarterback for the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins; and star player at Baylor University (including leading the team to its first-ever Big 12 championship).

Bryce tells the unusual series of events that led him to stay at home for a year in 2009 even though he had be...

Ferris High School (Ferris, Texas) just wrapped its first year of having Mentors Care on its campus. Even though the COVID-19 crisis cut short the school calendar, Principal Andru Gilbert (who also just finished his first year at Ferris HS) witnessed amazing results. 

He’s completely sold on Mentors Care and with year #2 already in his sights, Mr. Gilbert joined the podcast to pass along some of the inspiring stories he’s heard from...

In our first episode, you’ll meet our two co-hosts: Mentors Care Founder Dena Petty and Development Coordinator Summer Backstrom. Before they start interviewing the amazing people who are part of the Mentors Care family in future episodes, Summer first digs into Dena’s inspiring life story to find clues that led to the launch of Mentors Care in 2009. 

Dena recalls the struggles of her own adolescence and how those challenges inspire...

We asked former NFL QB Bryce Petty to introduce the Mentors Care Podcast to our audience because of his unique connection to one of the most innovative and successful mentoring programs in the state of Texas.

Mentors Care believes in the power of 1-on-1 mentoring for "at-risk" students. It has experienced overwhelming success since 2009 when it launched out of a broom closet at a high school in Midlothian, Texas...