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Winter 2004 Newsletter
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Big Brothers Program Seeks Role Models
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For Lt. Aenon Wallace the highlight of his week comes every
Tuesday morning. For an hour the Suffolk resident leaves his
role as aide to a Navy chief of staff to mentor a boy through
Big Brothers Big Sisters of South Hampton Roads.
After greeting the fourth grader at Norfolk's Tidewater Park
Elementary School, Wallace usually starts "with
multiplication flash cards to warm him up. We go over
whatever he is working on in school. Then we just talk and
see how he is doing." The student is the second child Wallace
has mentored through Big Brothers Big Sisters' school-based
program. The first boy moved after working with Wallace for
two years so he volunteered to help another child.
"If I can take a little time out of my day to be a positive
influence on a young person then I am glad," says 31-year-old
Wallace, a married helicopter pilot with no children of his
own.
Wallace is one of 100 mentors who work one hour a week in Big
Brothers Big Sisters' in-school program. Another 150 adults
volunteer three to five hours a week in the community program
taking their assigned children to museums, festivals and on
other outings.
The goal of both programs is to provide adult role models for
children in single-family homes and increase their
self-confidence and social skills.
Two recent grants from The Norfolk Foundation are helping Big
Brothers Big Sisters improve its work. An $11,315 grant
provided computers and software that let four staff members
and four interns create the organization's first database.
"The computers helped us be more efficient and work faster,"
says Lisa Cook, executive director. "Our computers are now
networked and are much faster. Before, we had to share
computers in the office."
A second grant last year through the Foundation's Extra Wish
program provided $3,000 to produce marketing materials to
recruit more men like Aenon Wallace. Big Brothers Big Sisters
currently has 40 boys waiting for mentors. The Extra Wish
grant came from one of the Foundation's donor advised funds
after the fund's advisors learned of Big Brothers Big Sisters
need for more male volunteers.
The grant paid for materials "we are mailing to area
corporations and military groups," Cook says. The first
mailing this winter has led to several speaking engagements.
"We spoke recently to several Navy squadrons and got 40
potential new candidates," Cook says.
Once successful mentoring candidates pass background checks
and interviews they will be given the opportunity to help
shape the lives of some of their region's youngest citizens.
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To learn more about Big Brothers Big Sisters of South Hampton
Roads mentoring programs, call (757) 549-7437 or visit
www.bbbsofshr.org.
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