The brightest moment of this sunny summer afternoon finally arrives, as each child in turn is invited to take the wheel along with the captain.

They sit down with squinting, brow-furrowed looks of determination and trepidation. But after a few moments, their shoulders relax, and dimples and smiles ripple across their faces.

"This is tight," says a boy, his face lighting up with a jack-o'-lantern smile, thanks to a few missing teeth.

"I didn't know how to drive a boat before," a girl says. She looks a little bigger after her turn, but it might just be her smile that has grown.

Any child would thrill to the feeling of driving a power boat. For these kids, the thrill is more than simple entertainment.

These kids have all been on a rough ride, cut adrift and thrust into foster care because of neglect or abuse by others. For them, the chance to feel in charge, to be at the helm of their own lives even just for a moment, is a rare and precious experience.

For them, the boat excursion is a simple outing on the way to a complex destination, a safe harbor where adults look out for them the way they're supposed to, where challenges are anticipated and mastered, where the hopes and dreams of childhood can shine anew, the way stones on the river bank sparkle when water splashes onto them.

The boat ride is part of a new mentoring program called Wonder Inc., an independent nonprofit that pairs adults, called guides, with foster children, called explorers. The term "mentors" may suggest tutoring or serious advising, but this program is different: These explorers and guides do fun stuff together. They might go out for pizza, roller skating, animal-gazing at the zoo, listening to music, hiking in a park. The boat trip is one of the program's occasional group outings.

The heart of the program is a one-on-one match for children who are between 6 and 12 and have been in foster care for six months or longer. It promises these kids, who have had a lot of promises broken, a yearlong commitment from an adult to spend about 10 hours a month doing things that most children take for granted.

The program itself is a bold maiden voyage for Diane Knorr, who steered it from idea to reality.

Knorr, who is 38, had a successful career in human resources at E-Trade, in charge of training and organizational development. She left that job in March 2002, seeking something new.

"I had hit a salary goal that I wanted to reach by 40, and it didn't do anything for me emotionally," she says.

A longstanding vocation was waiting for her.

"At 10 years old, I wanted to have my own orphanage; I've always had this strong connection to wanting kids to get more," she says. (She didn't open an orphanage, but she and her husband have adopted a son.)

She started researching what was out there, looking at other mentoring programs, including Big Brothers Big Sisters (which is not offered to kids in foster care). A conversation with a foster father, speaking about a 10-year-old boy he cared for, brought Knorr's vision for Wonder Inc. into focus.

"This boy had never tasted a fresh cherry or been to a restaurant with waiters and menus, and had never been to a river or skipped a rock," Knorr says. She fixed on the idea of a program that would provide recreation and a one-on-one relationship to kids in foster care.

These children have lots of adults in their lives, but they often form a parade of changing faces. Of the nine kids in the Wonder program today, most have had more than one placement and change of social worker in a matter of months. Against such a background, an adult who stays in the picture for a whole year stands out.

Knorr started talking with Sacramento County Child Protective Services nearly two years ago about her idea.

"Diane is tenacious; she is determined to do this and to do it right, and her enthusiasm wins people over," says Mary Tarro, a program planner with CPS who serves as a liaison for Wonder.

Among those Knorr has won over is John Reid, the CEO of FamiliesFirst, one of the state's largest child and family service agencies, based in Davis.

"I just thought it was a fantastic idea," Reid says. "I thought one thing we could do was give her some office space and staff support." Reid's wife, Sari, works as a volunteer for Wonder.

Knorr incorporated Wonder Inc. in November 2002 as a private and privately funded nonprofit organization. Sutter Health is a financial sponsor. The program also received a grant from the Irvine Foundation. Sacramento's Tackett-Barbaria Design Group donated creation of a brochure, logo and Web site.

Guides, who must be 21 years old, make a one-year commitment and may continue beyond that. They receive about 15 hours of training ahead of time and have to go through rigorous screening.

The first kids - a pilot group of four - were matched in fall 2003. A second group of five was matched in March of this year.

There is a waiting list of kids and adults who want to participate, with social workers calling up every week with names of children they think could benefit. In order to expand, more money is needed. Some of the biggest costs are liability insurance and fingerprint checks for guides, which run close to $100 a person. A first fund-raising event - a reception on Nov. 8 - has been scheduled with a goal of raising $20,000. (Tickets are $35).

The payoffs of Wonder may go a long way.

"If you have one person who mentors you and believes in you, you can turn your life around," says Leslie Cooley, a clinical psychologist and professor in the school psychology program at California State University, Sacramento.

Cooley, who was a foster mother to two boys, now grown, is on the Wonder board.

"This is about building a personal sense of competence - building experiences for kids to see themselves as capable," she says. "Instead of looking at damage and disease and dysfunction, we're looking for competence and strength and resilience."

If these kids can drive a boat, maybe they will have more faith in their ability to navigate other rough waters in life. If they can be convinced that an adult wants to spend time with them and likes them, maybe they will discover something about their own worth and lovability.

"It's not just feel-good stuff, it's not just a day in the boat," Cooley says.

Jonathan Pearson, who serves as an adviser to Knorr, knows firsthand the power of an adult's support for a floundering kid. He was 12 when he went into foster care. He had about nine placements and seemed headed for a career of getting in trouble. But when he was 16, he was placed with a foster father who made a lasting connection no one else had.

"I realized he genuinely cares about me," Pearson says. "It was one of the most important things that ever happened in my life."

This foster father was the adult who was always there and is still there, the one who taught Pearson how to drive a stick shift, how to put in sprinklers, how to clip a dog, how to do countless things that add up to being a competent adult. Today, Pearson is 22, self-supporting and owns a house with a friend.

"I think it's just small moments that can affect you," Pearson says.

There are a lot of shining small moments on Wonder's boating afternoon, with the guides and explorers playing together on the beach at Discovery Park, building sand castles, gathering up clam shells to take home, splashing and scarfing up a picnic of chips and sandwiches and cookies.

Barbara West, a sheriff's deputy who is a guide for a young girl, explains her motivation as she wades into the American River behind her young charge.

"As a cop, we complain about kids when they don't turn out; I thought, 'What about doing something on the other end?' " she says. "And I get to do fun stuff."

"Originally, I just thought I was helping someone else out, but she has had such an impact on my life," says Molly Rattigan, a 23-year-old guide talking about her explorer, a 7-year-old girl. "If she can see what she has and can be happy, she has taught me that nothing in my life is that tragic or bad."

Rattigan moved to Napa several months ago, but she keeps up her guide role: "I can't just be another person who walks out; she's going to be a part of my life for as long as she wants to be."

Rita Saenz, former director of the California Department of Social Services and current board member for Children Uniting Nations, a national mentoring organization, isn't surprised by the way adults fall for these kids.

"A lot of people go into mentoring thinking they will benefit a child, and the child ends up making a contribution to the adult," Saenz says. "It's a good antidote for being self-absorbed."

Over cookies and grapes at the end of the day at Discovery Park, the kids talk about what they like about being explorers.

"I get to pick what I do."

"We eat pizza."

"I think it's fun," says one girl as she puts yet another cookie on her paper plate. Among her discoveries as a Wonder explorer: She's crazy about Yo-Yo Ma (an epiphany at a listening station at the Virgin Megastore), and she can roller skate.

"I didn't know I could do that," she says of her outing to a rink. "I only fell once or twice."

And if she does stumble, she knows that her guide will be there, ready to give her a hand.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

How you can help the foster-care system
There are many ways that you can help kids in foster care. Here are a few.

* Become a Wonder guide: Requires a one-year commitment to spending about 10 hours a month with a child. You also can sponsor an explorer backpack ($83) or sponsor an activity ($250). Wonder Inc., 6507 Fourth Ave., Suite 400, Sacramento, CA 95817. Or call (916) 231-3027 or visit http://www.wonderinc.org/.

* Help children in the foster-care system or those awaiting placement in a variety of ways: Assist with homework, play games, read books and drive children to appointments. A four-month commitment is preferred. Call Child Protective Services' volunteer coordinator Deanna Hicks at (916) 876-7285.

* Donate household goods, furniture, phone cards and small appliances to teens in the Independent Living Program, which helps foster youths ages 16 to 21 prepare for and cope with emancipation. There are also opportunities to advise and assist these teens, including tutoring and providing rental housing. Call Theresa Thurmond, ILP coordinator for Sacramento County, at (916) 874-9526.

* Become a Sacramento court-appointed special advocate, acting as a one-on-one advocate for a child going through foster-care court proceedings. Requires a one-year commitment and about 20 to 25 hours a month. Volunteers are trained and supported in their efforts. For more information: (916) 875-6460 or http://www.sacramentocasa.org/. To find CASA programs in other counties, go to http://www.nationalcasa.org/.

* Donate to the Sacramento CASA program's Making Memories, started last year in collaboration with CPS. You can give items, an activity, an event, a one-time gift or sponsor a child or activity on a longer-term basis. Making Memories, care of SCASA, P.O. Box 278832, Sacramento, CA 95827. For more information: (916) 875-6460 or e-mail makingmemories@sacramentocasa.org.

* Donate a present to the Gifts From the Heart program of the Sacramento County Department of Health and Human Services. The program delivered about 10,000 holiday gifts to 3,820 foster children and to 494 seniors last year. Call Tammy Liu at (916) 875-2027.

* Donate college-scholarship money for foster kids to FamiliesFirst, which serves foster children in this area. For more information: (877) 488-KIDS (488-5437).

* Become a foster or adoptive parent: Call the Sacramento County Foster Home Licensing Program at (916) 875-5KID (875-5543).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Facts about foster care
In Sacramento

* A monthly average of 4,358 children were in foster care in the Sacramento area during the 2003-04 fiscal year. About 25 percent of these children live with relatives.

* Each month, the CPS Child Abuse Hotline in Sacramento responds to about 1,700 calls of abuse/neglect. The number is (916) 875-KIDS (875-5437).

* CPS removes children from their homes in about 7 percent of investigations.

* In 2003, 407 children were adopted through Sacramento County.

* Each year, more than 350 Sacramento County foster youths turn 18 and age out of care.

Throughout California

* 72 percent of children in foster care were removed from their homes because of severe neglect, not abuse.

* 69 percent of kids placed in foster homes or group homes are moved three or more times.

* 60 percent of kids remain in foster care for more than 18 months.

* 73 percent of kids in foster care are 6 or older.

Sources: Sacramento County Child Protective Services Statistical Report FY 2003-04; Center for Social Services Research at the University of California, Berkeley.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------