Big Brothers Big Sisters of Dane County invites its alumni over the years to return to a new program as it celebrates its 60th anniversary.
The organization partners youth — Littles — with adults — Bigs — to provide life-changing mentorship. Big Brothers Big Sisters of Dane County (BBBS) now celebrates 60 years and is looking to its past to invite its members to a new Alumni Ambassadors program. It looks to help cultivate and inspire the next generation of Bigs and Littles through their stories in the program.
“We’ve been here for 60 years. We hear a lot about folks that are either still connected with their Big or their Little, or we hear stories about matches that were brought together by our agency decades ago and they’re still remembered fondly,” Sandy Morales, CEO of BBBS, told Madison365.
The impact of BBBS’ legacy is long. The program is still connected to its first-ever Little, Jim Rose, from over a half century ago. Other Bigs like Badgers Football Hall of Famer and former New York Giants tight end Travis Beckum recalled his own time with his Little.
Beckum became organically involved through golf outings with his NFL Alumni Chapter around five or six years ago, with kids on the course. While he initially wasn’t part of BBBS at that time, he did become involved with Milwaukee’s chapter of BBBS in its Game Changers Program, which invites leaders to attract more bigs across the country and share their stories with youth across the country.
He later became a Big Brothers Big Sisters Big Draft ambassador to recruit 100 new Bigs during the NFL draft in Wisconsin last year.
“I still wasn’t a Big myself, and I can’t advocate for something that I’m not a part of,” Beckum said. “I reached out to Sandy [Morales] from the Dane County chapter and basically said, ‘I think it’s time I become a Big.’ And that was the final step of becoming a Big, and it’s been great ever since.”
Beckum’s Little was 10 years old. He described his Little as having everything in common with him — except a love for math, which Beckum isn’t a big fan of. Beckum feels like he really built a bond with his little, but his favorite part is the small things not often thought about.
He recalled a memory of his Little the first time Beckum took him out to eat that he still thinks about to this day.
They went out to eat at a restaurant early in the process of getting matched up, where Beckum introduced his Little to another person he was mentoring.
“These guys are in the middle of the restaurant doing push-up competitions and practicing their three-point stance… and after they were done with the push-ups, my Little gets done with his food and the server comes over. He asks where the garbage can is as if he’s going to throw his food in the garbage,” Beckum said. “[The server] said, ‘Thank you for being so kind. Don’t worry, honey, that’s my job.’”
It was something that Beckum noticed and thought that maybe his Little doesn’t eat out very much, but their kindness shone through to help someone else. That incident “sparked the life into our relationship,” Beckum said.
The BBBS of Dane County’s 60th anniversary will highlight stories like Beckum and his Little. January happens to be National Mentoring Month, so BBBS will start rolling out the sharing of stories of alumni.
Later this year, other events are planned, like its annual bowling fundraiser in the spring and its Big Dream Gala in the Fall.
It also plans to produce a video project on how BBBS got started back in 1966 to document 60 years of its history connecting youth to mentors.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Dane County currently has a form available for its alumni to share their stories for the new initiative.
