When it comes to making a choice between gangs and mentoring, the answer is a no-brainer.

That's where the Moore Buddies organization comes into the picture, and a team of mentors is making enormous differences in the lives of young people at risk physically, emotionally and culturally.

Last Sunday's article by Staff Writer Tom Embrey provided heartwarming and refreshing personal examples of mentoring success. They show the positive impact of mentoring on young people whose lives have been disrupted by everything from personal tragedy to community failure.

As one mother put it: "Their grades have improved, their attitudes have improved, and they spend more time together and talking about how they feel. They get excited when they venture out and explore new things with their mentor."

Reasons for the need may be as simple as the absence of a positive role model in their lives or as unnerving as powerful negative peer pressure, but failure to address the causes can turn a teen into a school dropout, a drug addict or a gang member.

The nonprofit Moore Buddies makes use of programs geared to age, need and circumstance, such as Communities in Schools and Community of Mentors Producing Academically Successful Students (COMPASS). CIS, working with a United Way grant, operates a variety of programs in cooperation with the Moore County school system, where 56 students work with mentors. CIS secured a federal grant to support the COMPASS program at Southern Middle School.

Added to these initiatives are two programs that target specific youth populations, the imaginatively named Mentor Mavericks and the homey-sounding Mentor Place. All are designed to meet the needs of young people at a time in their lives when they are most vulnerable to unfavorable outside pressures.

Moore County is blessed with the most talented, energetic and resourceful volunteers available. We have a gigantic pool of intelligent and concerned retirees who are eager to share their talents with their adopted community. They join nonretiree volunteers who also see mentoring as protecting their stake in a community they love.

Working with mentors, at times behind the scenes and often without credit, are the people who plan and organize these programs and use their expertise to identify suitable support engines and to apply successfully for grants to keep them running.

They all deserve a tip of the hat and a salute of gratitude.