Information mixer slated for Thursday night at The Backyard
(Seguin) – A non-profit organization is in search of a few good big brothers and sisters. Big Brothers Big Sisters of Comal & Guadalupe Counties is hoping to enhance its everyday efforts of pairing up even more kids with mentors here in Guadalupe County. The group will be holding a Back to School- Reignite Seguin mixer Thursday night at The Backyard to help jumpstart its program locally.
Although Guadalupe County is included as part of its name and history, Branch Director Rianne Sykes-Wenske, says the organization unfortunately doesn’t play the role that it would like to play in this community.
“It’s not the first. We’ve actually been there before. We had an office in Seguin that was opened in partnership with the state. The state created some funding, so we opened a location there in Seguin and there was also a location in New Braunfels and then due to state funding not continuing and other factors, the office in Seguin closed and that’s when the two branches in Seguin were combined and it became Comal and Guadalupe. It was on the board’s heart. One of our board members is Steve Delemos. I want to say his title is Juvenile Attorney (Guadalupe County Attorney’s office) and he said we need to get back over there. We need to make sure that we are serving the kiddos in the community and let’s make a concerted, strategic effort to get engaged again,” said Sykes-Wenske.
Sykes-Wenske says it’s been at least 2005 since the group operated an office here in the county. She says while they do have pairings of kids and mentors in the area, there are not as many as they would want to see and hope to get the wheels moving even faster.
“Before the end of the school year, we met with the Seguin ISD and said ‘hey, do you want us? Do you need us?’ You know making sure that there was actually a need from the experts in the community, the school district and they said ‘absolutely.’ So, from that moment that they said yes, we just started networking and building connections and meeting with community members and talking to them and just building program awareness again. And we’ve always served that area but like I said, there wasn’t a strategic effort in recruiting volunteers. It was more of a word of mouth. We have never turned away a child in the history of the branch since 2005 but now, we are making sure to get out there and get our name out there again,” said Sykes-Wenske.
Sykes- Wenske says Big Brothers Big Sisters is known for its success in helping to guide kids who need that extra attention from an adult.
“And so you go and pick up the kid from the house and you can go and do the fun things and go to the fairs or the park and play or ZDT or do the fun things but also making sure that you are helping them learn about the basics of life – taking them grocery shopping with you. How did you create your grocery list? How do you have your budget set and one kid in our program didn’t know how to even pump gas and so the Big on their very first outing said ‘come on, kid, get out. We are going to teach you how to pump gas.’ So, the Bigs always get to share with them,” said Sykes-Wenske.
She says more importantly it’s about developing that relationship and giving kids someone who they can count on.
“The volunteers are a role model. You are the child’s confidant and friend and cheerleader and just their person. You know a lot of kids that come to us – there is a bunch of siblings in the house or even just being an only child and the parent working a lot – you know a lot of the kids that come to our program are looking for that one on one attention and just to have their one special person and so that is who the Big is in their life. The Big Brother or Big Sister comes in and they spend quality time with them and of course, we hope to give them life skills and help them grow and evolve and become successful adults in our world but at the core of all of it, we are showing these kids how to be in a relationship with another person,” said Sykes-Wenske.
She adds that the organization already has a list of the things in the works – many of them in partnership with the Seguin ISD.
“Looking at the options of doing after school programming and getting volunteers to go meet with the kids at the afterschool program. There is also options of work place programming where the kids can go from the school to a work place and if they are any work places in town who are interested in hosting a mentoring opportunity for their staff and a local school, then reach out to us and let us know if that is something you are interested in and we can definitely talk about that and of course, there is always our community base which is the heart and soul of what we’ve done for the longest and that is everything facing the community. If the families come to us and they go through their training – if the volunteer comes to us and go through the training, then we connect them — the volunteer with the child at the home of the child and then from there, everything is done in the community and the volunteer works directly with the family to schedule outings and do things like that through outside of the constraints of school or workplace or things like anything like that,” said Sykes-Wenske.
Sykes-Wenske says during the Thursday night mixer, the group will not only be searching for Big Brothers and Big Sisters but those in the community who want to help make a difference in these kids’ live whether it be as a board member, community partner or through any other means.
“One thing I’ve learned — so I’ve been in this position for 18 months now — I cover the Texas Hill Country and Comal and Guadalupe County and so I cover a bunch of different communities and the way the program looks depends solely on the community and what they want out of it. So, it really is a call to action to every Seguin resident saying what do you want for your kids and how do you want to show up for them and what kind of programs do you think your kids need? We are the experts in one-to-one mentoring but that does not necessarily mean that we know exactly what your child needs and so depending on what you ask from us is how we are going to show up for the kid,” said Sykes-Wenske.
The mixer will include free raffle prizes, food and games. The event will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday at The Backyard located at 225 N. Saunders St.