BY MEGHAN CALLAHAN
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
BROWN COUNTY – Big Brother Big Sisters (BBBS) of Northeast Wisconsin has begun their recruiting process for 2024, with a campaign entitled “The Big Draft” — a play on words as the mentors are referred to as “Bigs.”
Keren Cotter, a recruiting chair for BBBS has worked there for six years and said there’s nothing more rewarding. “
Seeing the very best of the community and being able to work with volunteers and see the impact they have on the kids is one of the best parts of working with BBBS,” Cotter said.
Cotter said that watching the kids and mentors grow together is a special thing.
“Bigs get to be present in a lot of life moments for their Littles and a lot of Bigs talk about how their Littles have been there for them,” Cotter explained.
“We have about 60 plus volunteers so far and almost 100 kids still on the waitlist.”
Anyone above the age of 18 can become a mentor.
“Community members can mentor. We typically say they have to be over 18, but we’ll sometimes make exceptions for high school students and match them with an elementary school buddy,” Cotter added.
“We accept people all the way up through grandparent age.”
As for the Littles, the cap for enrollment is typically once they graduate high school, although exceptions can be made for this as well.
According to Cotter, personality is important and many different personality types are widely accepted and matched with littles accordingly.
“Most importantly we look for people who want to provide a safe and loving environment for children,” she added.
“There’s a few factors that we look at… we look at geography, we want to make sure it’s going to be something that’s convenient for the Bigs… we look at interests, all of our Bigs and Littles fill out interest profiles.”
There is a lot of thought that goes into the matching process.
“We look at strengths. We look at complementary personalities. What does this Big have to offer that this Little needs role modeled?” Cotter said.
“For our site program, they meet at schools. They might do more board games or card games, have lunch together or do crafts, that kind of stuff. In our community program they do things all across the board.”
Cotter said that while volunteers are just working with one youth, the impact is much larger.
“Anytime you are working to build up the youth it will have a massive ripple effect,” Cotter said.
If you’re looking to give back to by joining “The Big Draft,” BBBS is still in need of mentors.
For more information, visit www.facebook.com/bbbsnew/about or https://bbbsnew.org.
BBBS of Northeast Wisconsin serves Brown and Shawano counties.