Mentors for Youth announces 2026 Howl at the Moon fundraiser in Jasper

Mentors for Youth of Dubois County is asking sponsors to step up early for a fundraiser that helps determine how many local children get matched with a mentor and how long the waitlist stays open. Howl at the Moon returns Friday, Sept. 18, 2026, at the Thyen-Clark Cultural Center in Jasper, with the nonprofit using the event to support its mentoring programs across the county.

The night is set to include heavy appetizers, drinks, dancing, a silent auction and dueling pianos, with saxophone and drums added to the lineup for 2026. The setting gives the event room to grow, too. The Thyen-Clark Cultural Center, which sits in downtown Jasper and houses Jasper Arts and the Jasper Public Library, can host events of about 230 people. Organizers are lining up sponsors now, months before tickets are expected to go on sale in June.

That fundraising push matters because Mentors for Youth says its work is built around steady, one-on-one relationships. The organization matches children ages 6 to 14 with mentors ages 16 and older, asking adults to spend two hours every other week for at least one year. Most matches last about 2.5 years, and the group says it has been doing the work for 35 years. Mentors also receive online training and ongoing support, the kind of back-end work that sponsorship dollars help cover.

The nonprofit says it currently has 33 active matches and 10 children on its waitlist, a clear sign that community support still shapes how quickly young people can be paired with a caring adult. If the fundraiser falls short, fewer resources are available to train and support mentors and to move more children off the waitlist. The organization’s 2024 Howl at the Moon event showed what the night can produce, drawing more than 200 attendees and raising over $25,000 at River Centre in Jasper.

Local officials have already recognized the group’s role in the county. The cities of Jasper and Huntingburg proclaimed January 2025 as Mentors for Youth Month in honor of National Mentoring Month, underscoring that the organization’s reach extends beyond a single event. For Paige Mundy and the rest of the nonprofit, this year’s Howl at the Moon is both a social night out and a financial test of how much Dubois County is willing to invest in its children.