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Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Fox Valley Region wants to keep you appraised of what's going on. This page will be updated with the latest information. Be sure to check back regularly!

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Information on arrest and investigation involving a former volunteer with our organization.
Call Your Match Support Specialist Contest! Want to have DINNER and a MOVIE on us? Here’s how you can have a shot at earning this neat incentive…

Recent News...
Matt Neistein column: Building a future doesn't require hammers and nails
Waiting list grows for youth mentors By Kathy Walsh Nufer

In Other News...
Jenks Nominated to Wisconsin Nonprofits Association
Big Brothers Big Sisters allows Muriel Hawkins to touch lives
By Eric Quintanilla, Of The Northwestern
OFFERING SUPPORT Mom gives Little Sister someone to confide in
By Toni Hoh

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Information on arrest and investigation involving a former volunteer with our organization.
We are aware of the arrest and investigation involving a former volunteer with our organization. Two years ago Daniel Callan volunteered with Big Brothers Big Sisters as a mentor for a brief period. We are alarmed and deeply saddened by the reports of any child being harmed. Because the investigation is in progress, it would be inappropriate and irresponsible for us to discuss or speculate about any specifics. To date, law enforcement has not made us aware of any specific incident.

Please know that as the nation’s premiere mentoring organization, Big Brothers Big Sisters makes child safety our priority. We have zero tolerance for abuse. Our volunteers and staff undergo thorough screening and background checks and we provide ongoing professional support for our children and families. As part of the orientation process, our Little Brothers and Little Sisters and their parents receive personal safety awareness education. In this case, we

1. have been very proactive in reaching out to authorities to inform the guardian of the child who was matched to this individual in the past.

2. have offered support to the child and family affected.

3. will continue to cooperate fully with authorities investigating this matter.

For more than 40 years Big Brothers Big Sisters has had a profoundly positive effect on the lives of children in the Fox Valley. We remain committed to continuing to provide the highest quality mentoring programs possible to the children we serve. For more information about Big Brothers Big Sisters go to: BigBrothersBigBisters.org and BeMyBig.com.
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Call Your Match Support Specialist Contest! Want to have DINNER and a MOVIE on us? Here’s how you can have a shot at earning this neat incentive…
Supporting our matches is a top priority of Big Brothers Big Sisters. Connecting with our matches is very important to us and offers a number of advantages. The Match Support Team is there to support you with relationship development, activity ideas ensure the child’s safety, offer assistance when addressing sensitive issues, help celebrate small and large accomplishments, individualize goal setting, and provide continued feedback on how the match connection is making a positive difference.

We are offering a fun competition between you and the MSS team. We are asking all volunteers, littles and parents initiate contact with their MSS at a time that is convenient for them. If you make the effort to call, visit, or e-mail your MSS before they connect with you (need to provide valuable insight into the match), your name will be placed in a drawing where you will be able to treat yourself and one other person to a night out. There will be several drawings throughout the next year so we look forward to hearing from you and wish you good luck!

We give a special thanks to Cinder’s for donating gift certificates for dinner.
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Recent News...

Matt Neistein column: Building a future doesn't require hammers and nails
I worked odd-job construction one summer during college. I didn't mind it so much, but I learned that working with my hands wasn't something I wanted to do for the next 50 years.
That's why the fun I had building a shed Saturday morning was all the more special.

For the last 10 months, I've been a "Big" in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program based in Appleton. My "Little" is a young teen with a good heart who likes football. We decided to pitch in when we heard BBBS was working with Habitat for Humanity to build an 8x8 shed for a Habitat house in south Appleton.

I'd never done anything like this before, but I wanted my little brother to get a taste of hard work and how good it can feel to help out other people, even if you never meet them.
We met with about 20 other BBBS folks at Miron Construction in Town of Menasha, where a few Miron guys who probably could have built the shed in less than an hour patiently guided us through the process.

In four hours, we turned a pile of lumber and a couple of buckets of nails into a sturdy outbuilding.
No doubt, we broke a sweat. And a few blisters appeared over the course of the morning. Yet I've never seen people have that much fun while working that hard.

Adolescent kids were whaling away at these sixteenpenny nails, and the looks of sheer glee and satisfaction on their faces made the ache in my muscles vanish. But the best part of the day wasn't when we finally put the pieces together, or when we got to sign the inside walls with positive words for the future homeowners.

It was when my little brother turned to me about halfway through the morning and asked, "Can we work on the house next time?" I guess we helped build more than a shed that day.

Matt Neistein is the Assistant Editor/ Community Conversation. He can be reached at 920-993-7117 or mneistein@postcrescent.com.
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Waiting list grows for youth mentors By Kathy Walsh Nufer
Ten-year-old Malcolm Reischel looks forward to lunch and a little man-to-man conversation once a week with his Big Brother mentor David Seitz.

“He’s nice, he’s cool and he’s awesome,” said a grinning Reischel as the two dug into pasta and breadsticks at Fazoli’s Restaurant one recent Wednesday. “We talk about how our life is going, like I always wanted a pet snake, and how I had three pit bulls, but on died, and how my favorite thing to do is computer lab.”

The two, who have dined together once a week for since last fall, also dive into deeper discussions, said Seitz, 58, a father of four grown children and grandfather of two, and a participant in the Big Brothers Big Sisters School-based Mentoring program.

“We talk about how he has trouble with bullies, fighting and getting picked on, the importance of schooling and how he needs to study hard and get good grades and make good choices.” These heart-to-hearts over lunch are at the core of the mentoring program, which began in 1998 and now boasts 169 school-based matches throughout the Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Fox Valley Region service area, including 40 in Appleton schools.

“But there are so many more kids who could use it,” said Jeri Kukurich, program director. “We get calls from schools all the time. School counselors and teachers are never at a loss with referrals of youth that could benefit from having a one-to-one connection with a positive role model. The challenge is having enough mentors for all the kids that need and want them.”

The Northeastern Wisconsin Mentoring Coalition, which partners with area schools and such agencies as Big Brothers Big Sisters, PALS and Beat Friends, estimates there is a waiting list of 2500 youths throughout northeastern Wisconsin who can use a mentor. Kukurich said more than 240 children are waiting for a match through her agency alone, and not just in the schools but in all the programs the agency offers in Outagamie, Calumet, Waupaca and Winnebago counties.

“There is such a great potential for School-Based Mentoring to grow,” Kukurich said. “It’s such a convenient option for spending time with a child: just one hour once a week, during lunch hour or after school. Lots of businesses are encouraging employees to give back to the community, so it’s a good fit all the way around and doesn’t interfere with family life.”

Seitz, executive vice president of the Mechanical Contractors Association, is one of the longest serving volunteers in the program. He said he was inspired when former Secretary of State Colin Powell, during a visit to the Fox Cities as chairman of America’s Promise in 1999, challenged adults to step up and mentor young people.

Seitz said this one-to-one approach to volunteering suits him well. His previous match lasted 6 1/2 years.
“You can be helpful without making it a difficulty in your life.” Seitz said of the program. “An hour a week – practically anyone can do that.”

He said he and Reischel have bowled together, shred Christmas gifts, and done other activities, but they usually meet over lunch. “We call it our tour of international restaurants - Chinese, Italian, George Webb….”

More than anything, he said, “I’m just someone for Malcohm to talk to and I can expose him to things he normally couldn’t do, like hunting and being outdoors. There are limited opportunities in his family.”

Kukurich said the program reaps benefits for the kids who participate, from improved confidence and relationships with other children to better grades.

Sometimes people ask what they can accomplish in an hour, she said, “but the outcomes with school-based mentoring are wonderful. More than once counselors have shared the positive impact mentoring has had on their students. Oftentimes it is the biggest highlight of the child’s day and makes them feel so special and important.” Reischel would like to see the program grow. “I wish everyone at my school could have a mentor,” he said.
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In Other News...

Jenks Nominated to Wisconsin Nonprofits Association
Tracey Jenks, executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Fox Valley Region was nominated and selected to join the founding board of the Wisconsin Nonprofits Association. Jenks has over 11 years experience working in the nonprofit sector.

The mission of the WNA is to enhance the effectiveness of all nonprofit organizations in building and keeping a better Wisconsin, for the common good. The organization is a sector-wide, statewide association of nonprofits, primarily 501©3’s. The association will provide the following core services: Leadership and convening of the sector, advocacy and public policy, management and technical assistance, information and referral, products and services, and communications.

Jenks is honored to have been selected, “I believe that there is a need for a strong collective voice for non-profit organizations in Wisconsin and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to become involved with the WNA. We (nonprofits) can accomplish much more together than we can separately.”

The WNS will join the ranks of the established and emerging stat associations of nonprofits that now exist in over 45 other states.
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Big Brothers Big Sisters allows Muriel Hawkins to touch lives
By Eric Quintanilla, Of The Northwestern
When Dr. Muriel Hawkins first moved to Oshkosh, she knew that she not only wanted to live in Oshkosh, but also be involved in the lives of the area’s youth. Coming from Chicago, she had been involved in mentoring programs and looked for something similar in Oshkosh. That’s when she found Big Brothers Big Sisters and started touching the lives of numerous youth by being a mentor in the program.

“I’ve always been fortunate enough to have mentors in my life and I think it’s important to give back,” Hawkins said. “I know that a lot of my successes have been a result of the mentors I had in my life.”

Since her first little sister, Hawkins has gone on to be a mentor to seven children through Big Brothers big Sisters and the Webster-Stanley Elementary School Family Mentoring Program. In addition to those seven children, through her position at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh as Assistant Vice-Chancelor for Academic Support and Diversity she has mentored countless new college students.

“I like to help others that may not have the type of mentoring they need,” Hawkins said. “To give them the friendship and guidance of someone outside of their structure.”

A testament to the mentoring example Hawkins has set, her former Little Sister Tia Wilder has since gone on to graduate the program, go to college and become a Big Sister herself. Despite having graduated from the program, the link between Wilder and her former Big Sister is one that will last a lifetime. As wilder prepares to attend UW-Oshkosh, the two stay involved in each others lives and the time spent as Big Sister, Little Sister has forged a friendship that continues to flourish.

“She’s got a great heart,” Big Brothers Big Sisters Lead Match Specialist Lori Altraide said of Hawkins, “If she sees something that needs to be done she doesn’t let anything stand in her way. She’s resourceful, knows a lot of people and she just cares about people in general. It’s that care that helps her to help the community at large.”

Dr. Muriel Hawkins
Age: 60
Volunteer at: Big Brothers Big Sisters
Other hobbies: Collect depression era glass, cooking, working at women’s shelters
Job: Assistant Vice-Chancelor for Academic Support and Diversity at UW-Oshkosh
How to help: Call the Big Brothers Big Sisters Oshkosh office at (920) 231-2442
Quote: “I’ve always been fortunate enough to have mentors in my life and I think it’s important to give back. I know that a lot of my successes have been a result of the mentors I had in my life.”
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OFFERING SUPPORT Mom gives Little Sister someone to confide in
By Toni Hoh
A so-so childhood led Carrie Baehman to Appleton to sign on with Big Brothers Big Sisters so she could make a difference in another child’s life.

“I always kind of wanted to do something to give back because my childhood wasn’t the greatest,” said Baehman, 36, who has been paired with Kayla Willequette, 16, of Appleton, for five years. “It wasn’t the worst, I see now, but it wasn’t the greatest.”

When Baehman heard about school-based mentoring offered by BB/BS, she was eager to get started. School-based matches meet once a week at school during the student’s lunch hour.

“It’s a perfect way to start out,” Baehman said. “It’s a good thing,”

Baehman, an administrative assistant at Valley Packaging Industries, has children ages 6 and 10.

Kayla, just 11 when she met Baehman, was pretty quiet at first. More recently she has started opening up to her adult friend. Baehman attributes that to how she can now pick Kayla up and they can go somewhere outside of school for lunch.

“In middle school and now in high school, it was hard to sit and talk one-to-one. Now that I’ve found I can take her out, she’s really opened up quite a bit. She laughs a lot and introduces me to her friends,” Baehman said. “She lets down her guard.”

Kayla and Baehman were among those honored at Big Brothers Big Sisters annual banquet recently for their continued commitment to each other.

“One thing I’ve really noticed is Carrie’s attitude,” said Angela Shogren, match support specialist at BBBS.

“She’s really persistent and very patient and very compassionate. I think she finds it personally rewarding to make a connection with Kayla.”

In fact, Shogren said, Kayla has shared with her that Baehman has been a real influence in her life as she navigates the teen years.

“They talk about real things, real life things and how to prevent things from happening.” Shogren said. Kayla said the reason she wants to stay away from drugs and alcohol is because she wants to be like Baehman.

“Carrie’s persistence with the match has made it so successful. They work on homework together. She’s really a model for Kayla. I think Carrie offers Kayla motivation and Kayla gives Carrie a breath of fresh air. I can tell they’re very connected, very close.” Shogren added.

Anyone with a positive outlook and willingness to make a commitment to a child can qualify as a mentor. The role of mentor is simply to serve as a friend to the child and provide stability.

The first couple of months are spent getting to know each other. After that conversations often center on whatever is on the child’s mind. Because many lack social support, adult mentors serve as a gateway to that.

Children ages 6 to 15 are eligible for a mentor, but many are on waiting lists. If they are matched before the age of 15, the match officially lasts until the child graduates from high school. Once the child graduates, it’s up to the matches to decide if they want to continue their friendship. For Baehman and Kayla, there’s no question that they will continue their relationship. “Most definitely,” Baehman said.
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