Seven or eight weeks ago Dover Bay Grade 12 students, James Saunders and Tyler Boe, came up with an idea that would soon create an avalanche, not a back country mountain avalanche but an idea that within weeks would begin to gather a growing number of other students that would see their vision and join in to help make it happen.

The "avalanche" started when James and Tyler were sitting in the library during a spare period brainstorming for something they could volunteer to do that would allow them to give back to their school. If it looked good on a resume or a scholarship application that would be good too but this was not their primary motive.

Since the beginning of the school year they have been working together to write an article for the school's Heart and Stroke magazine created by Tim Hou -- a Neighbourhood Hero for another time - but they wanted to do something else in addition to that.

Both James and Tyler are student jocks, student jocks that tend to get straight "As", especially in math and science, so eventually they decided to become volunteer math tutors every Monday and Thursday morning from 7:15 to 8:15.

Since James' father is a math teacher at the school, a teacher who like most other teachers arrives early in the morning to prepare for the day, they immediately had a space where students who wanted extra help could gather ... and a professional teacher who could lend support if needed.

A week or so later their mutual friend Andrew Pappel offered his support when he heard about their project and the three math musketeers were born.

The first few days only a few students showed up but then as the next set of quizzes approached more began to attend and even more after these quizzes when many students didn't do as well as they had hoped. At times all of the desks in the classroom have been filled.

Most of the time James, Andrew and Tyler work one on one with their students but when one group of Grade 10 students began to turn up regularly, all with similar problems, Tyler began to work with them in a group using the white board.

"Some kids don't learn as quickly as others," Tyler told me, "but they can do well when they get the opportunity and support needed to learn at their own pace.

"When kids get in trouble," Tyler continued," everyone comes down on them with punishment and rejection rather than trying to find what it is in their life that is causing them to get into trouble. So it would be great to have some kind of group that would get them together with a peer councillor to do fun things and learn in that way."

Andrew Pappel, the third of the three math musketeers, has enjoyed his tutoring experience as James and Tyler. "It's kinda a Boy Scout thing," he told me, "and it feels good"

It was Andrew who described the way the "avalanche" is growing. It seems that James began talking to other students their volunteer efforts and this week a Grade 8 study room will be opening on Mondays and Thursdays after school. Ten Grade 11 and 12 students have volunteered as peer tutors for that group.

Like most good ideas, I'm sure this tutoring concept has been thought of before and it may well be happening right now in other schools. If you know of similar student initiatives, please contact me by email (bill@nhero.org).

This is the third in a series of columns that will focus on the untold truths about the huge majority of today's teenagers.