| December 2010-Big Brothers Big Sisters of the BH |
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It's a program designed to be half work and half play. Twelve years ago, Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Black Hills started a school mentoring program. Today the program has 54 volunteers helping guide children not only through school's challenges, but life's everyday adventures. Black Hills FOX reporter Amanda Weber shows us why they are Committed to Kids. Big Brothers and Big Sisters of the Black Hills say they always tell their volunteers to take the program on faith, believe that you're making a difference. And their school mentoring program volunteers have to do just that.The program began 12years ago, taking volunteers from within the community who want to work with children, but have a limited amount of time. They take those volunteers and put them into a school setting with a child one day a week they spend one hour together doing everything from catching up on homework work to bonding over basketball.
School mentoring program case manager Larry Mayes says, "Comments from kids run from oh it's really cool, or I love them, I wish they were my real big brother or big sister. I think the more meaningful comments come from the volunteers because almost inadvertently they end up getting more out of the program than they ever thought. Often times they think they are going to be a tutor and don't realize they are going to be a friend for life." John and Skyler have been paired up for 2 years, every week they spent time together doing homework and just catching-up on life's everyday experiences. Both John and Skyler say each week they look forward to their time together. Skyler Herrick says, "Its kind of fun and inspiring to be with him and have him help me."John Schencke says, "I really enjoy coming out and having fun. Its almost not enough time, it's only an hour or 45 minutes and it's a real quick 45 minutes sometimes." Mayes says volunteers like John are what keep the program going, but the need for more volunteers like him is constant. Mayes says, "We have probably more need than we can even describe. Every time you match a child or go to a school, the teacher will say, oh I've got 3 other children that we would like to match so I would say the opportunities are unlimited." Volunteers must be 16 years or older. Currently they have 54 school mentors who range in age from high school seniors to working adults. And Mayes says every one of these volunteers is truly committed to the kids. Mayes says, "You can't do this job for as long as we've been doing it without being committed, you have to believe." Amanda Weber |
