Richie & Rayshawn: An Eventful First Year of Big Brothers Big Sisters

What's it like to go from no kids to mentoring a high energy 6 year old through BBBS? It's been an adventurous and very rewarding last year. Over a year ago I was looking at volunteer opportunities in the Milwaukee area and wanted to make a difference. I looked into Big Brothers Big Sisters, since I had some friends Glenny Crawford and Dusty Weis that are part of the program and had great things to say about it and the impact that you can have. I also remembered my Dad mentoring through a different program while I was growing up which ultimately inspired me to sign up. And I went through the process applied, got my fingerprints, interviewed with someone from BBBS, went through a training and then they match you with a kid that they feel is a great match. So last January after going through the process I met Rayshawn, a high energy 6 year old at the time and his Mom and everything going approved and we were off. And it’s been an amazing, very eye opening fun year, I had a lot of respect for full time parents before this experience but I can say after being responsible for keeping a 6 year old alive for a few hours a week I’ve got a whole new level of respect for you parents out there who are responsible 24/7. Before we dive in I would like to say if you feel inspired to get involved there is a big need right now as there are 500 kids on the waitlist alone, waiting for a mentor due the demand.  And there are more ways to help out then what I do that are a little lower commitment than the “community based mentoring I do” -  some are just after school, some are once a month and those are also very important--- so if you are interested at all or have any questions feel free to reach out to me directly happy to help.