by Caroline Gabsewics
Staff Writer
For a century, Big Brothers Big Sisters has been a way for people in the community to reach out and volunteer their time to help make an impact on a child’s life. And, they could use your help.
“It (Big Brothers Big Sisters) deals with the fundamentals of raising our children,” said Warren Grymes, CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Florida. “Aristotle was quoted as saying, ‘The hallmark of a great society is how it raises its children,’ and we speak directly to that.”
Adults taking care of children has always been a key element of society, he said. Since Big Brothers Big Sisters began 100 years ago in New York, they have been helping children who live in a single parent family and didn’t have a second adult role model in their lives.
“Big Brothers Big Sisters is the most recognizable one-on-one mentoring organization in the United States,” said Grymes. “We match up the volunteers with children.”
In 2004, Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Florida served almost 1,000 children. In 2003 they served 725 and in 2000 they served 400 children.
“You can see it has dramatically increased,” he said. “We have a lot of children with single parent families that need help.”
Currently there are about 200 children that aren’t matched with a big brother or big sister. Before a volunteer can become a big brother or sister they have to go through an interview process to determine their preferences before they go through training and a background check for the community program. Right now Grymes said they have over 1,000 volunteers, but he said they would be able to help more children if more volunteers came forward.
Some of the programs Big Brothers Big Sisters offers include the one-on-one community program where the “big” take the “little” out to eat or to a baseball game. Volunteers are required to spend four to six hours a month with their “little” in the community program. Another program, Bigs in Schools, has high school students helping the younger children with their school work. They are required to spend an hour a week with their “little” during the school year. A program special to Jacksonville called Children of Promise Jacksonville, is federally funded and serves children whose parent (or parents) is incarcerated.
“There are a number of ways to hear about the program and word -of-mouth is the biggest, especially from satisfied parents,” said Grymes. “But children can be referred to us by teachers and guidance counselors, too.”
Not only do individual volunteers help children, but a lot of area companies help Big Brothers and Big Sisters in many ways.
Dan St. John, CEO and chairman of St. John & Partners, said about 50 of his employees took about 40 of the unmatched children to Dave & Busters on Sept. 24.
“We are committed to give back to the community where we live and work and our employees embrace that,” said St. John. “The kids had a great time, as did we.”
He said they are planning on doing an event like this for the third year in 2006.
“This is a wonderful thing for us; we hope other companies follow that lead,” said Grymes.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Florida covers Nassau, Baker, Clay, Putnam, Volusia, Flagler and Duval counties. St. Johns county has their own agency, said Grymes.
The volunteers become a special person in a child’s life because a volunteer is another adult the child can look up to.
“The volunteers will tell you they get more out if it than their ‘little,’ ” said Grymes. “It’s the little moments when the first time after months your ‘little’ says thank you to a waitress — it’s little things that spark the commitment from the ‘big.’ ”
During the last week of September, Big Brothers Big Sisters made 110 matches in the schools and 18 in the community.
“We’ve all had mentors in our lives and they have been very important to us; they were able to connect with us,” said Grymes. “We bring that person into a child’s life and hope there is a connection.”