WALDRON, Ark. (AP) - Susan Mariotti is using her experiences to help teen girls reach their full potential.

Growing up in a small west Texas town, Mariotti lived with her Hispanic mother until she married at 15. She had her first child at 17 and her second at 20.

By the time she was 21, her family had moved to Houston and she was working to help support them.

After 26 years, the marriage ended. Mariotti remarried eight years later and retired to Waldron with her new husband, Phil.

The Mariottis began attending St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church, and she began to see girls there who reminded her a lot of herself as a young teenager.

“At 15, I should not have been in that situation,” said Mariotti, 55. “I made the best of it.”

Mariotti talked with the church leadership - including the Rev. Neil Pezzulo, pastor, and Kathy O'Brien, the church's pastoral associate - about things that could be done to help the young Hispanic girls of the church.

“Father mentioned that someone needed to teach these young girls how to behave,” said Mariotti. “It just got me to thinking about things I could do.”

Mariotti thought back to her own childhood and an eighth-grade teacher who took an interest in exposing the students to a little culture.

“My eighth-grade teacher took the class to a symphony in Midland, Texas,” Mariotti recalled. “I was just in awe of the instruments.”

Mariotti wanted to create a club for young girls to expose them to some situations and settings that they were not accustomed. In October 2007, she sent invitations to 12 high school girls in the parish; seven responded and joined the Young Ladies Club.

In her home, Mariotti plays classical music in the background as she taught the girls table manners, proper posture and general etiquette.

“These girls, they are all willing to learn,” said Mariotti. “I showed them how to do napkins and forks. They really had a good time. I made it fun for them.”

A few months after the girls began their lessons, one teen had the opportunity to put them to good use.

Lidia Mondragon, 16 at the time, was selected to attend a banquet at a school leadership camp.

“Mrs. Susan, I went to that banquet and got to the table and saw all the forks and glasses and plates everywhere,” Mondragon told Mariotti. “But I thought, I can do this.”

Mariotti is grateful that the girls learn some valuable lessons.

“They learn from it. If I hadn't shown her how to do those things, she wouldn't have known,” Mariotti said. “I was there once. It is worthwhile. I've had many experiences that have told me this is working out.”

In October, a second group of 10 high school girls ages 13 to 16 started their year in the church's Junior Ladies Club, while some of the older girls continue to return for meetings on different days.

During the monthly gatherings, Mariotti has addressed gum-chewing, posing with proper posture for photographs, cooking, and hosting a dinner party. Various speakers have taught the girls how to bake apple pie, make icing roses and decorate cakes and look at celestial bodies through a telescope. And there have been field trips - to the theater, to see a musical and “The Nutcracker” production.

Mariotti kept remembering to that eighth-grade teacher who opened her eyes to new experiences at a young age; that teacher gave her some advice she now gives to the young girls she mentors.

“She brought me home and said, 'Susan, you have a lot to offer. If you stay in school and study hard, you can do anything,”' Mariotti recalled the teacher saying.

At every gathering, Mariotti reiterates that lesson to the young girls - that there is a whole world out there just waiting for them to explore it and become involved in it.

“You have to act like a lady at all times. Respect your parents and respect yourself,” Mariotti tells the girls.

“I've had a lot of ups and downs; but I can't regret those things because I have a family,” said Mariotti, who has two grown daughters and two grandchildren. “Things are tough and they're going to get tougher. But the way out is not marrying or running out with someone and having sex. That just makes things worse.

“I want these girls to know that even at 60 years old, you can still have love, you can still have sex, you can still have a marriage and you can still have a life together,” said Mariotti. “You don't have to do that at 15, 16 or 17.”

Mariotti plans to continue the teen club, possibly incorporating fundraisers into the club activities to help out with the cost of some of the gatherings and outings.

“I feel this is what God has in mind for me to do,” said Mariotti, a retired flight attendant. “I know I can't save them all. If I can save just one, it's OK. I know I'm doing a good thing.”

By Pam Cloud