Good morning and welcome, Welcome, welcome. It is time for our community
connection right here on K one, the one you trust, and today we
have miss Charlene in here with the big Brothers, Big sisters. You brought
a friend, Good morning, Good morning. You did bring a friend.
I did bring a friend. Yes with me this morning is Mitch Tate.
He is the Bartlesville Resource Board chair and I wanted him to share with everyone
some of the successes we've had in twenty twenty three and launch bowl for kid's
sake. Oh right, well, I'll tell you what Mitch. First of
all, your first success is that you met up with Charlene, because that's
where kind of success begins. She knows where to find good people to make
that way to appoint me for sure. Yeah, well tell us a little
bit. We got a lot to cheer about. Thank you, Thank you
for having us. My name is Mitch Tit. I'm born and raised here
in Bartlesville. Spent a whole life here playing sports in and out of our
family tire shops, tape boys, tiring service, and then went to the
University of Oklahoma, came back, worked at the family business, and had
a phone call from Charlene, one of the gentlemen that worked with me,
was applying to be a big brother. He was taking that big leap forward
to step up and help some of the youth of Bartlesville. And so Charlene
called me and we had a conversation. I learned in depth about what Big
Brothers and Big Sisters was about, and I knew I had to be involved.
I knew it was something that I wanted to be a part of.
I've been a part of a bunch of football programs and I've got to coach
a bunch. I have kids that are now growing up going through youth football,
and I see the impact that a positive mentor can have on the youth
of Washington County and beyond that, Big Brothers Big Sisters takes it one step
forward with the one to one mentor and so it's not a coach where it's
one to eighteen and so, just coming to understand the impact that Big Brothers
Big Sisters has had and it's continuing to have in Bartlesville. I knew something
I wanted to be a part of, and so I joined a couple years
ago go and uh last year I took over as the board chair and it's
it's just been an awesome experience for me UH to learn more about the youth
of Washington County the needs, and UH I hope to explain a little bit
of that to you guys today. Well, Mitch, Firstwall, kudos for
stepping up, and double kudos for your enthusiasm. Charlene, you know how
to find enthusiastic people, Well, Mitch's. Mitch has done a great job.
And as the leading the board, he brings his UH coaching leadership style
that sounds like a coach around. Yeah, and that's helping to get everybody
engaged and working towards serving more more children. And you know, when we
have people who participate like Mitch and like anyone really it branches it out.
It creates a little bit more awareness. And of course, when more people
understand what Big Brothers Big Sisters is all about and the positive impact that it
brings not only to the kids but to our community, you know, good
things start to happen. Well, and because I've been here thirty four years
this month, I thought she was only twenty nine. I know, it's
okay, amazing what I've becompressed. I've been in one place long enough to
see kids that we matched that you know, people that I matched before they
were even married, and now grandparents and are some of them I've been hearing
in this last month or two several people who are still in touch with their
littles and they haven't been matched for years, you know. And so it
really shows the life long impact that some matches happen. Not every match is
a life long one, but some of them, some of them really are,
and all of them are life changing on some level, you know,
the longer the relationship, it's just like having old friends. But so you
really begin to see the impact of the match, and you can see it
over time where you see, ah, somebody who comes in and says,
I was a high school mentor and I want to be I'm back in the
community and I want to be a mentor now as well, you know.
So, yeah, it's so it's really gratifying to be able to see that
now, Mitch, you get to witness some of the changes in these young
people kind of firsthand. That's got to be kind of cool to see that
that light come on. It's a it's a special feeling. And to see
the impact and to see the data that comes out of it of the true
impact that this program has on the kids and success they go see beyond their
matches and the and you know, we talked to everybody about it. The
improved scores and classes, the improved attitude, the proof self esteem, and
there's all this data behind it that they've been able to collect, and that's
really what keeps me going. And that's what our board is a fantastic group,
and that's something we're constantly looking at and reminding ourselves, this is why
we do it. Oh, and that's I mean, and there's so many
different ways that it happens. But both are Big Brothers Big Sisters. I
don't think there's a better mentoring program out there. There are a million ways
that a person could go wrong, in a handful of ways where a person
can go right, and Big Brothers Big Sisters is one of those ones that
puts you in the right direction, whether you're the big or the little.
I've seen the Bigs come out of it saying that I've become a better person.
I listen more, I'm more attuned to others around me, I'm more
in tuned to my environment with other people. And they feel that it's been
a growing experience for them as well as for the child. We frequently hear
that I came into thinking I was going to help a child, and I
didn't realize how much I was going to learn in that relationship. So oh
wow. And Charlene, how does a person who's listening in today, who's
maybe thinking about this been on the bubble a bit? How do we how
do we get them into into big brothers, big sisters? How can they
take that first step? Well, I would say now is the time,
stop thinking and just call us and we'd be happy to answer any questions.
They can go online to Big Oklahoma dot org and apply if they're ready to
do that. If you know, if you know how to be a friend
and you have a heart for kids, then you know how to be a
mentor. And it's not it's it's just about sharing your life experience and opening
up opportunities for kids. It's not not fancy. It's just being there,
being consistent, building a relationship, listening, going to the Christmas pree,
whatever, you know. It's doing ordinary things and involving a young person and
stuff you're already doing. And I would encourage you if you're even considering it,
call and get more information. It's not as daunting as task as you
would think. It really is simple. It's be a friend, be there
for them. There's Charlene in the program does an excellent job of keeping it
structured for you, so it makes it easy on you. So if you're
considering it, just pick up the phone, go to the website, learn
some more about it. Because it's a really compelling case for somebody to go
and change somebody's life here in Bartlesville or Washington County, and too easy to
overthink, isn't it. Well, and we've got thirty five children on the
waiting list. We've done a really good job of reducing down the kids that
are waiting more than a year. We're down to only four kids who are
waiting more a year. But a year is a long time. It's a
long time. Well, we used to think it was a long time in
our lives. I'm not sure how we got to November thirtieth this year,
but because I feel like we just did Bowl like a couple of months ago,
here we're starting again. But for a child, there's a lot that
happens in that and so we really need people to step up and say hey,
I can do this. Our greatest need is for men or couples to
be matched with our boys, because out of the thirty five, about thirteen
of those are girls and the rest are boys. Wow. And we've got
some site based kids that if you're like, you know, I just want
to go one day a week for an hour to the child's school and mentor
there and that works with your time and your lives, then we've got kids
that need that and we are serving kids in Dewey, Jane Phillips, Wilson
are our target schools right now. And for site based, and then the
community based is going to be the activities are in the community, so they're
going to be as varied as the people. So I would just encourage people
to to there's a lot of ways we spend our time. There's probably not
a lot that we do more than spending that hour or two with the kid
once a week to just be the cheerleader in their life. Wow. To
use a sports team. Well, speaking of sports, and I knew we
were going to do this, Let's get ready to bowl tumble those pins over.
We've got bull for kids, say coming up, it is weird.
We're peppering. We're getting all the word out this week and early bird team
Captains ends January eighteenth, and so every team captain that gets themselves signed up
before then and gets into a drawing for one hundred dollars visa card and then
we'll have an incentive for getting your team squared away by the end of January
so that we can raise one hundred and fifty five thousand that we have as
a goal. Our goal is eighty four teams. Last year we had sixty
four, I believe. So we're slowly coming back from the COVID nightmare and
we need to get back to eighty four. We'll be back to where we
were in twenty twenty twenty. Oh wow. So that's where that's where we're
trying to get that participation level back. And you know, this is a
great time to put a team together. If you're thinking about putting together some
of your friends that might make good bigs or not, this is a great
time to kind of share the enthusiasm. Mitch, Yeah, this is one
of the best events that bartoswol does. I think both kids take It has
been around for a long time. It's been while successful thanks to you Bartlesville.
So please continue to support us, and there's a couple of different ways
you can do it. So get a group of friends together, come bowl.
It's a group effort on raising money for these kids. One of the
great things about this event is this money stays here in Bartilsville and goes to
support the matches that are made here in Bartlesville. And then the second one
that we always did at Tate Boys was we would get a you know,
we would get our team together and we would put Tape Boys teammates on the
on the team for Bowl. And it's a great way to get people out
of work and get them together in a social setting and really help build that
team chemistry. Sports guy, We're keep saying team even though we got OSU
in here. So but it's a great opportunity to get outside the office,
get your team together, have some fun. It's a really great event,
a ton of fun and a great way to keep building that team chemistry.
Or if you just want to get a group of your friends together, it's
a fun time to come out bowl. I hold the record for both for
Kid's Sake for highest going score and that's not recorded, so I can say
confidently that I do have it, because nobody will be able to say I
don't. And we also have the opportunity for virtual bowlers, and because we
had about ten people and it's growing the number of people who are like,
I love the mission, I want to support it. I'll raise I'm going
to sign up. I'll be a team of one and raise money. But
I'm not the bowl party. I don't want the bowl party, for whatever
reason that might be. And every one of those virtual bowlers last year raised
over one thousand dollars. And you know, when you think about that,
that's ten thousand dollars that was raised by individuals with no bowling involved, but
because of their heart for the mission. So if you're thinking, you know,
I'm over bowling, I never was. You know, I can't bowl,
I'm a bad back. Whatever might hurt people. Yeah, well there's
that, you know, whatever that that reason is. If you have a
heart for the mission, there's still a way for you to raise money.
Ask the people in your network to support your passion for the mission and help
to support the cause. Very good. Now, how do we get the
information? How do we sign up? We can go that on the website,
can't we? Yes? It's it's a little more complicated to read on
the air, but it will be in the newsfeed. It's so think Bowl
for Kids Sake. So that's b FKS Bartlesville dot org and that will get
you there. If you need help of any description, and you can call
an office nine one eight two one three four five two four, we'll be
happy to help you. That is great. I want to thank you both
for coming in here today. This is this has been fun. Yeah,
thank you so much, and thanks for all the enthusiasm and all the information.
And let's get our teams together and let's make this a record breaker.
Well, yes, we need to need to do that because twenty twenty four,
we will have served Washington County for forty years in WOWL. So this
is a great way to roll in. And I came in well whatever,
thirty four years ago and both for kid's sake. They had had one maybe
two before that. Just a little historical note, they raised eleven thousand dollars
the year I came. We raised thirty and we've raised we raised more per
capita than anybody in Oklahoma and probably most bowls in the states. Wow.
We and we've held that title for a long time. Let's put some times
between us, folks. That's just kind of really yeah, So this would
be the probably thirty fifth anniversary a bowl for kid's sake, forty and so
for here. So let's let's do make it a record breaker. I'm on
board, all right, Thank you very much, folks. We'll have a
story out on our website and you'll see a little bit on Facebook too with
all the links on how you can be part of big brothers big sisters,
both for kid's sake and perhaps you got the hard for it, folks,
to become a big couple, big brother or big sister. Yes, because
we're looking to make twenty twenty four a record breaker for the number of new
matches, number of children served. We served more kids this year than we
did last year. So we're back. We're back on the trajectory of growth
that really got stymied for about two or three years. All right, let's
make it happen. Hey, thanks for coming in. Thank you guys.
Folks, you've been listening to and watching our community connection right here on K
one, the one you trust