There’s a unique program in our state called Idaho Youth Challenge Academy, or IDYCA, located in Pierce.

Just getting there is a challenge. Out of Orofino — along the Clearwater River canyon — climbing through forested rock around hairpin turns. And then breaking forth into another realm — vast tabletop snow-covered prairie. A feeling of being “on top of the world lookin’ down on creation” — as the Carpenters used to sing. Past farm fields into the woods again, climbing a little more and, finally, finally finding Pierce — Idaho’s oldest gold mining community along the edge of the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests.

Last Saturday was Mentor Day at IDYCA’s residential facility — formerly the town’s elementary school. 16- to 19-year-olds can voluntarily attend this cost-ree program. They live five-and-a-half months on the grounds in a residential phase, followed by a year-long post-residential phase. The idea is to give at-risk teens/high school dropouts positive direction for their life.

Run by the National Guard in a “quasi-military” style, the kids go to school full time while also being taught eight core components — leadership/followership, responsible citizenship, service to community, life-coping skills, physical fitness, health and hygiene, job skills, and academic excellence.

Each teen must have a mentor of the same gender, which is where I come in with my girl. She’s 16 and found herself struggling in her life.

Rather than staying stuck or sliding she opted to give herself a chance and entered the program. It’s not an easy pursuit.

All personal electronics are out the door. No video games. No cellphones. No junk foods or sodas. No mirrors. The day begins at 5 a.m. and ends at 9 p.m. Boys and girls are kept entirely separate. After class, homework gets done.

Privileges are earned. The teens dress in fatigues and boots. Learn marches and drills. However there is no requirement to enter the military.

What they must do is put together a post-residential action plan or P-RAP. Will they continue on in school? Get a job? Join the service? What obstacles might they encounter? How will they overcome them?

Mentors stick with the mentees for a year-and-a-half to encourage and advise. To do all we can to inspire them to succeed.

After observing the program firsthand — and meeting with my girl whose dream is to become a Navy Seal — I don’t know who is mentoring whom.

Take our outdoor drill demonstration. I immediately flunked right face. She kept me practicing until I managed right face, left face, and could almost do about face without falling on my face.

It’s what we all need — not just at-risk teens. Someone alongside to be patient. To cheer us on. To improve us with faithful, honest input. To believe in us. To stay close in our shining — and shadowed — seasons.

We’re 16 and 66, she and I … and it’s not too late for either of us.