What are pals for?

AUBURN - Fingers wrapped around a pencil, Genesee Elementary School student Kiarah Pertilla scanned a word search assigned to her for homework on Tuesday.

Sitting around a table in the school cafeteria, Pertilla, 8, of Auburn, looked line by line for the word “shirt” while Allie Mack, an eighth-grader from West Middle School, watched over the third-grader's shoulder, providing guidance, support and homework help when Pertilla needed it.

Pertilla and Mack, along with 23 other pairs of Genesee Elementary and West Middle students meet every Tuesday in the elementary cafeteria for Y-Pals, a mentoring program facilitated by the Auburn YMCA-WEIU. For a half hour each week, middle school students help the elementary school students with their homework, read books together, play educational games or just simply talk.