'He genuinely cared about the kids'

Generous. Happy-go-lucky. Helpful. Funny. Positive.

These are just a handful of the adjectives used to describe the late Dave Radcliff.

A mentor with the Glenwood chapter of TeamMates, the highly-acclaimed relationship-based mentoring program for Glenwood Community School District students in grades 3-12, Radcliff was that rare volunteer who went out of his way to show up and size up.

“He was always so positive and asking ‘Hey, what’s next?’ and ‘How can I help with that?’’’ said Sandra Dollen, Glenwood TeamMates coordinator.

This spring Radcliff was named Glenwood’s Mentor of the Year. The award is the first given out by the Glenwood chapter since its inception almost two years ago. The COVID-19 pandemic did curtail the program and limit face-to-face mentoring but it didn’t change much. It was and is all about mentors showing up for mentees.

Radcliff had only been a part of the Glenwood chapter of TeamMates for a year – and a pandemic-riddled year at that – when he passed away unexpectedly last December at the age of 53. But he left an indelible mark on the program he had long supported from a distance before taking on a more active role.

When Radcliff passed away, Dollen saw the impact he left.

“I was like, ‘It has to be him,’’’ she said of the inaugural award. “I think he definitely is exactly what a mentor should be. He did everything you would expect and more. Each week he came in to see his mentee he came in excited and it was genuine. It wasn’t a chore. He came because he genuinely cared. He cared about the kids. He cared about the community. I could see his mentee light up.”

As a longtime Nebraska football fan, Radcliff was well aware of TeamMates prior to the organizations’ arrival in Glenwood. He had tremendous respect for former head coach Tom Osborne, who founded TeamMates with his wife Nancy in 1991. Radcliff attended several of the organization’s annual banquets, listening to national speakers and adults share their experiences being part of the program.

“That’s where he heard some of the stories of the mentees and how they grew up in the program with their mentors,” aid Lori Groves, Radcliff’s longtime partner. “He heard their success stories and how well they were doing. The program inspired him and when they eventually came to Glenwood, he got involved right away. He was really looking forward to see where the program went.”

Radcliff took his middle school mentee under his wing last school year. They would shoot hoops, toss a football, discuss life and sports and simply hangout and talk. Connecting isn’t always easy for mentors – or mentees – but Radcliff had an easy way about him that did connect.

“Middle school is not an easy time in life for a lot of kids,” Dollen said. “And some days would be great, and like a typical teenager it might be rough. When he would see him, Dave had that ability to just to be there for him. To be that adult friend. And you could tell that connection was there even when it was a rough day for the mentee.”

As the pandemic was taking hold, shuttering schools and locking down businesses, Radcliff, whom Groves said wasn’t a “tech guy,” still found ways to get in socially distanced, face-to-face meetings as much as he could.

“I know he took a measuring tape with him one time and he taught him (his mentee) how to use it,” she said of Radcliff, who was a master plumber. “He just liked to reach out and keep him engaged any way he could.”

Radcliff’s death was a shock to friends, family and his adopted hometown of Glenwood. His obituary listed both his mentoring, his volunteer work with the Ministerial Food Pantry and that in lieu of flowers, memorials could be directed toward TeamMates. The memorial idea was Groves’.

“I know how much TeamMates meant to him,” she said. “I think it’s what he would have wanted.”
Groves isn’t sure what Radcliff would think of the TeamMates Mentor of the Year award but she’s fairly confident of what his reaction would have been.

“I think he would be proud, and I’m not sure that’s the right word, but he’d love the direction that the program was going in more,” she said. “He would be gratified or pleased and he’d accept it but he’d see it as being more about the program than him.”

The Opinion-Tribune

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