Welcome, everybody, to Midday Magazine for this Friday, September 6, 2024.
I have your host, James with you. We're joined right now by our great, great, great friend.
Beth Konert, Director of Operations, a big brothers, big sisters of Central Wisconsin.
Beth, did I get close with the last name?
You did awesome, James. I'm so impressed.
It helps what we've talked before. It does help. It does help.
I appreciate your time, Beth. I always like to mention, you know, a little behind the curtain,
or a little journalistic integrity, or what have you.
This is one of my favorite programs in America. I love the big brothers, big sisters program.
It's something that I was fortunate enough to be a part of.
It's something that, as a kid, I would like to have been a part of.
It's an important program in our communities that I feel like we never seem to get enough time to spend on it.
I'm really happy that I saw you on the schedule this week.
I was really excited that you guys were going to be in, and we could talk about it today.
Thanks a lot for being here.
Well, thank you so much for having me.
September is Big Brothers Big Sisters Month, too.
So, perfect time to have you in. What a great timing.
And shout out to Pam and you for setting this up, by the way.
So, this is a big deal for Big Brothers Big Sisters.
It is. Every September is a big deal.
As we mark the Big Brothers Big Sisters Month, but this year, in particular, it's an even bigger deal.
So, 2024 marks the 120th anniversary for overall our national office of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America.
You know, we are so fortunate to be an affiliate and be a part of that 120-year history.
And we know so many amazing stories and lives have been changed over that 120 years.
And we can't wait to see what the next 120 brings.
Yeah, that's so impressive to me.
And while I mentioned, and part of the reason I brought up my background with this great organization,
is I know quite a bit about it, and I feel I know a lot.
I didn't know it was 120 years. That's amazing.
We're going to be celebrating a birthday next month here at WFHR. We're 80 plus years old.
But, I mean, we're young compared to you guys. That's really cool.
80 years, though, is still very impressive.
We're still proud of it, but I can't imagine how proud you and the team are about something like this.
In a specific year like this, 120th, that's really amazing.
Especially when, with an organization like this, anybody can make such an impact for it.
And it doesn't take much to make a big impact.
That is so true. And that's where our tagline of it takes little to be big is so incredibly true.
It's those everyday moments.
You know, I say in every recruitment session, you don't have to bring Disneyland to a child.
It really is just being present. Sit down, watch a movie with them, play a board game, heavy conversation,
toss a football around in a park, go to a library and talk about what books that they're interested in.
It's really that simple.
It does not have to be these big grandiose moments.
Because really what kids need is that one-to-one undivided attention
where somebody's listening to them and caring what they're talking about.
I grew up collecting baseball, football, basketball cards, things like that.
My little brother got into magic to gathering cards.
And I had no idea what these things were.
We spent hours talking about these things, explaining them and everything.
And while I still don't know much about those cards,
I enjoyed so much his energy and how much he got into it and passionate about talking about it.
That's where the time, not all the time we spent together was,
but oftentimes we go to the park or something like that.
It would come back to those cards and he got a new one.
How excited he was to get a new one or something like that.
It's such a great point to make.
It almost doesn't matter what you're doing or what you're talking about so much as you being engaged
and showing to this young person that you're listening to them.
You're making eye contact, you care about them, you care about what they say and what their, what their passions are.
And you're asking those follow-up questions.
I think that's the biggest deal.
And I love that you talked about that because we had a match in that very similar situation
where our little brother loved Pokemon cards and had this game,
that like this board game that went along with it.
And in doing match work, I was talking to the big brother and he's like,
honestly Beth, I have no idea what I was doing in that game.
But he kept like encouraging me and he was teaching me and he's like to watch his face light up.
He goes, I didn't care how many times I messed up and he had to be like,
no, that's not quite right.
But he was the one that got to be teaching me and his excitement was just infectious.
And I think that's the biggest thing is like taking on their interest.
Even if you don't understand it, it's such a good learning tool and it gives them that confidence boost
because it's something that they care about that they can teach you.
And that got me because I immediately thought of Julio and my little brother.
And one of the things that I think that is noteworthy about this as we talk about this,
we celebrate 120 years of big brothers, big sisters is I did that 15 years ago.
I can't remember that young kid right now.
I could draw him if I can't draw.
But I could try.
And I think of those memories very, very fondly.
And this is something that when you give your time and your energy to something like this,
it never stops giving back.
These memories don't fade.
They don't go away.
The connections that you make with these kids, it goes so far and really impactful to you too as well as them.
And that's, I love that point that you just made is you can do that as the big.
It impacted you that much even 15 years later.
But think about that on the little side.
Think about what they get to then draw back on and how that carries on to that lifetime.
You never know in those moments at one hour a week is still with them 15 years later.
They're still thinking about those moments and that's huge.
That's where it's those little moments that have such a huge impact and can last a lifetime for them.
I think when, especially since we don't get to get together nearly enough Beth,
I like to go over the mission statement of what you guys do over there, big brothers, big sisters.
This always feels like something good to rehash to go over.
Absolutely.
So our mission is to create and support one-to-one mentoring relationships that ignite the power and promise of youth.
And I think that's the biggest thing is we truly believe that every child has unlimited potential.
Every kid can do amazing things, but sometimes they just need someone in their corner reminding them they can.
Inspiring them to take a chance and try something new.
And sometimes they need that defender of potential just in their corner.
Being that cheerleader saying you've got this, you can do this.
You never know how impactful it is to be on the sideline or watching them at a concert or at a dance recital
or just even when they have their first win of anything and be in that cheering section, that's huge for them.
A defender of potential.
God, that's good. That's good.
You got to copy right there. That's that's that good.
It's pretty sure National has.
I think so, I think so.
But it is really good.
It hits home so much of not only the mission, but the vision of what you guys do.
And maybe go over that a little bit too of the vision behind what you're.
Absolutely.
So that our vision is that all youth achieve their full potential.
And that's the biggest thing.
And that's a whole reason for having a mentor in a child's life.
Is that as I said, every kid has unlimited potential.
Sometimes they just don't see that in themselves.
And sometimes they don't have that person in that background reminding them of that.
And that's where our volunteers come in.
And that's those things that you can do.
You can remind them that they matter.
That what they do matters.
And they have a big impact on their life.
And that's the thing.
Is that we just, we always want to give our littles a voice and give them that reassurance that, you know, their opinions and their views matter.
And that's somebody that's going to listen to them.
I think we forget as we, the older we get, of course, certain things about being young.
And most of us all realize that voice in your head, a lot of times can be negative or we can be our own harshest critic.
Absolutely.
But that doesn't just start when we turn 18.
No.
That's something that we feel when we're young too.
And I think we forget about that sometimes.
And to be a person on the sideline, cheering that kid, cheering that person on can mean more than we could really put into words.
It goes so much farther than that.
Beth, one of the things that I, we certainly want to do with this time is encourage people to be a big brother, a big sister.
But while the organization has been around for a very long time, I don't know that it's common knowledge of what the role takes, what you do in this mentoring program.
You might if we go over that a little bit.
Absolutely.
So we have two different mentoring programs that we offer in all the communities of Wisconsin Rapids, Marshfield and the Stevens Point area that we offer.
So we have our community-based mentoring, which is our most traditional.
When people think of big brothers, big sisters, this tends to be the program that they think about.
And that's where an adult community member takes a child out and about in the community and does really low-cost and low-cost activities.
We know that this cannot be a financial burden for our families.
But we certainly don't want that to be a financial burden for any of our volunteers.
So it really is as simple as taking a walk, taking a bike ride, going to play in a park, going on the swings together.
Going to a library or a community event, I think we live in an area where we have so many fun, great things that are family-friendly, but that are free to access.
And that's the biggest thing.
And that program you're meeting once a week for about an hour.
So really everybody has an hour that you can find to do this in all reality.
But then we also offer what's known as site-based mentoring.
And what this is, is we partner with local elementary schools here in the Wisconsin Rapids area.
That's how elementary.
And an adult goes into the school and meets with them for anywhere from about 30 minutes up to an hour depending on availability.
And they do just basic things, like playing board games, doing an arts and crafts project, maybe going outside to play or having lunch.
You know, thinking about back in those days of that square slice of pizza on Friday that you get to sit down and enjoy with the child.
That's how I started my passion was I was a site-based big sister.
And now way too many years and we're not going to put another on that, I get to sit and be director of operations.
So it's awesome that it comes so full circle.
Thank you for sharing that.
That is really cool.
I didn't know that. Good idea. That is very cool to hear.
And it's also I think noteworthy here because you're so right about this.
Most people, even when I've brought this topic up to people, they will talk about sometimes I don't know what to do with the child.
I wouldn't mind doing this but I don't know what to do.
Giving the ideas for activities is something that you and your team do.
And keeping in mind that it doesn't have to be much more than taking a walk to the park or something like that.
We are so fortunate in this area to have so many different activities like you mentioned.
And so many of them are free our zoo or some of these other things and so many other things that are low cost as well.
But I really appreciate that we can talk about the site-based part of this too.
Not only with your personal history to that and a shout out to how elementary too.
But also the time commitment there is even almost easier for some people to manage.
And for some people, and I don't know, this part I don't know Beth.
If I wanted to, just using me as an example, I wanted to start as a site-based break brother.
But maybe I get more time freed up or maybe I feel more comfortable with the doing something like this.
And I want to become a community-based more mentor.
Can you do that? Can you kind of switch around a little?
Yeah, absolutely. That's a great question.
And I have to do a huge shout out to the Wisconsin Rapids area.
You guys are our gold star with that.
We've had so many adult volunteers that have started out at that.
Because they're like, you know, I'm not sure.
It's kind of, it can be intimidating to just all of a sudden take someone else's child and play with them in a part.
And we completely respect that.
So that's where starting in that site-based where you kind of have that support from the school staff.
And you know, you're working more like individually, but you have people around should you need something.
But the amount that then we approach that under the school year and they're like, wait a second.
I won't see them until September of next year.
I don't think I like that.
So the number of volunteers that we've had transition, either to like a hybrid of the two where it's like a site-based plus,
where they can still tend to meet in school during the school year.
But then like on those off periods, they have more option to be out and about or to straight community-based.
And it is truly awesome that they have that much invested.
That they're like, nope, I want to do more.
It's really cool of the organization, the schools, everybody involved in this to understand, you know, as a parent,
one of the things that I know that is one of the most important things, as a parent backup.
You got backup. I'm joking a little bit, but there is something too that as you know it.
I think that's a key part of this.
But you know, and I appreciate the noteness about the area and how well this area has performed in those departments.
And in that, it's really cool to hear.
Very encouraging to hear.
But it's also noteworthy that there is a wait list for kids.
There is. So in our total service area, there's 82 children, which I have to say is our highest number since COVID.
It does.
And I always say I can't wait to work myself out of a job that someday there's not going to be kids that need our program.
But I also know that the need continues to rise.
But here in the Wisconsin Rapids area, we have 12 children that want a positive role model in their life.
They stress the word want.
This is not something that someone else can want for them and make them do.
All 12 of these kids want this and has expressed that to our staff.
And it's been interesting because for a long time in Rapids, our main wait list has been little brothers.
And suddenly the summer that kind of flipped a little bit.
We've had a tremendous outpouring of little sisters that are in need.
But I still mention, even though our number of waiting little brothers have decreased, I would say most all of them do not have a consistent male role model in their life that are waiting.
So that need for big brothers continues to be there while our big sisters can definitely be matched with our little brothers.
We know for some of them, they just want that male role model because in their head, you know, moms can't throw football.
So why would a big sister be able to to?
Certainly appreciate all big brothers, big sisters, and it's very noteworthy what Beth's saying.
But there is something to that.
And there's nothing wrong with that.
That's okay.
There are certain areas we really need to focus in in society.
And I think there's somewhere.
Can we get some bodies here?
Can we get some good people that want to do this job?
And they could really fit the job.
And in this particular circumstance, these kids really could use a male role model in their male person in there to be able to fill this bill.
So we're talking about these kids.
So we're talking about the different, um, different layers of this, uh, that need in the male role model.
There's some other details that go along with some descriptions about this.
Do I want to get into with you?
Absolutely.
So all the children in our program can be anywhere from the age of like six, um, up to technically 17.
However, we don't enroll after roughly about 16 just because we definitely find that at that point.
They're kind of getting busy in high school and their interest in our program.
Kind of disadvantages a bit.
Um, all the kids are typically referred either by a parent, um, a teacher, a counselor, a school social worker, maybe an outside therapist.
But like I go back to is every child has to tell us they want to do this.
Yeah.
This is not something that somebody else can be like, no, you have to do no matter how much somebody else wants this.
If a child ever tells their staff, I just don't want to do this.
We respect that.
We give them that voice and give them that choice.
Um, but they come from a variety of backgrounds.
I always say there's no cookie cutter little.
Yeah.
They are their own individual people.
So whether that mean they're coming from a single parent home or maybe they have a dual parent home.
But we know that parents are working incredibly hard to provide for a child's needs.
So sometimes being able to just sit down and play a board game or be out and about in a park.
Even if there's two of you, it takes a village.
Sure is a child and we know that especially if you have multiple kids because how often do you just get one on one time when you have multiple kids living with you?
Um, we definitely see that some of our, our littles in our program are living outside of their typical mom or dad home.
You know, maybe they're living with a grandparent or another family member or living in foster care.
And so many of the kids that we serve are kind of living below that poverty line.
And the reason I point that out never that that is a bad thing, but that's where it kind of goes back to.
It's those little moments because I've done this for a long time and in doing match support.
It's so cool when I get to see a child play a certain board game.
I don't know what it is about.
Sorry, but that tends to be the one that like their face lights up and they're like, I got to do this for the very first time.
And it was so much fun.
You know, and I reiterate that point is for some of these kids, they just don't have the opportunities that maybe your own children have had or other children that have been in your life.
So really those little moments of just going to play in a park or having somebody to play a board game with or introducing them to a new card gamer.
Things like that are just things they haven't gotten to do so it can be this huge impact for them.
So many of us parents remember as our kids, we get this the gift that we know they won.
We're excited for them to open it on the birthday for Christmas.
They open it up. They're playing with the box.
They're playing with the box.
You spend whatever amount of money on this and they're playing with the box.
This is kids.
They don't need a lot.
This doesn't that complex.
You don't have to overthink this.
You think with your heart a little bit.
You engage.
You're listening to them.
Before you know it, you figure out things that you can do with them.
And when it comes to the kind of kid that is in this program and involved in this,
there's at least four or five of these that are my background and I come from.
And I know how much this would have benefited me.
I know how much I could have used this.
I was fortunate.
I had some older friends that were almost like big brothers to me.
But they were not.
They were kids themselves.
And that was a difficult thing to grow up with.
I come from a very poor community.
I come from a violent community.
And I know that going back there in recent years and seeing the big brothers big sisters program,
how much that has benefited just 111.
And my block in Chicago where I'm from and stuff.
Just that area how much has been impacted by this program.
I know for a fact that as a big brother myself with Julio,
he came from a very similar background.
So when he had tried to pair him with a couple of people, it didn't work out.
When he got paired with me, I knew what he was going through a bit.
Right.
We were able to relate on a different level and hit it off right away.
I don't think it's a coincidence.
I think that those of you that come from similar backgrounds to this,
I, me just speaking for myself, I felt a responsibility to, hey, I got the time to do something like this.
And part of the reason I made it through a lot of that stuff is some of the bigger influences
I had older friends, my dad, something like that.
Here's a chance for me to pay it forward.
Here's a chance for me to do something and maybe help this kid.
And that stuff goes so much farther, not only karma wise or just being able to make full circle moment,
but the good that you feel from that again, there are no words for it.
Let alone the most important part of this, what you can do for that young mind and that young person.
And the two things that I want to just take from that is you were fortunate to have
those older friends, but that were decent role models.
The big thing is, and one of the things I also say in recruitment sessions is that if we don't find positive influences,
negative influences are going to find a child.
And even with positive influences, we know that that can still happen.
But the more positivity and resilience that you can surround a child with,
the more they're able to walk away from those negative things.
And that's the biggest thing, that's where those mentoring points come in.
And I really think about that as what you said of,
your little brother was tried to be matched with somebody else.
And it took you having that common ground.
And that's what we do.
So we do a full interview process with both the parent and child or interstate-based with our littles.
But then we also do that with every volunteer.
Because we match completely based on interests and personalities and backgrounds.
Because we try and give the strongest foundation to a match possible.
So that way you can make the longest strongest match possible.
We know that for a child that only wants to play video games and you know,
thinks he's going to melt in the sun is probably not going to want to be with the most outdoorsman person.
We know that sometimes that's a good thing because it opens yours.
But it sometimes makes those first few months really challenging.
So that's why we do try and have common interests.
But we can build upon and then kind of build in those new interests or hobbies.
And there are so much benefits for this, for these kids, for the individual,
the big brother, the big sister, as we got about just a minute or two left bath.
I do want to wrap up with the benefit from having assistance.
Absolutely.
So we know that there are so many benefits.
Whether that child is gaining confidence, they know how to go up to friends.
And it'd be like, hey, can I play with you?
They know how to be a good friend because they practice it while they're with you
and taking turns and active listening and things.
We know that it improves family relationships because the parent isn't trying to do everything completely on their own.
And we also see educational benefits, especially in our site base.
The number of educators that we have say a little will show up on the day that they know their big is coming
because they don't want to miss out.
So their attendance is better when they're in that program.
And overall, they have someone that is just for them.
There's one on one.
And it is undivided attention for somebody that's going to listen to them and care about them.
And that is huge for anyone.
Always a good conversation with you, Beth.
Appreciate the great work that you, your team are doing in our communities.
People want to find out more and maybe even become a big brother or big sister.
How can they do that?
Absolutely.
So they can reach out to us either by phone at 715-341-0661 or by visiting our website at bigimpact.org.
That website again, bigimpact.org.
Be sure to bookmark that.
Follow the big brothers, big sisters of Central Wisconsin on social media.
It's a great follow and share their posts on your pages.
You just never know who might see these things that wouldn't otherwise.
Beth, we'll talk again real soon.
We got to get you back soon, okay?
I appreciate that.
Thank you so much.
Appreciate you.
Have a great weekend.
You too.
We say a big thank you to our heart of this station, Pam Hilke,
and the great scheduling job that she does weekend a week out.
We appreciate you, Pam.
Have a great weekend.
Everybody be good to each other.
We will talk to you sooner than later right here at 97-5 FM 13-20 AM.
WFHR, we are locally grown radio.
