Speaker 1: And good morning. Welcome to Community Connection.
Speaker 2: On this Friday, August the eighth, Nathan Thompson here in
Speaker 2: studio and we got a treat for you today. Good
Speaker 2: morning from the Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Bartlesville area.
Speaker 1: How are you today?
Speaker 3: Hey, I'm doing good. I'm doing good. Glad to be here.
Speaker 2: Well, we're always glad to have you in studio. And
Speaker 2: you've got a big new event that is coming up
Speaker 2: here just a couple of days, right.
Speaker 3: We are, Yeah, August sixteenth, the Bartlesville Mystery Gala. Yeah,
Speaker 3: we're real excited about it now.
Speaker 2: You know, we've talked about this before whenever you're in
Speaker 2: a previous next We was working the shift that morning too.
Speaker 2: So this is a really cool, like clue in spa
Speaker 2: hired program, is that right?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, so yeah, brand new. We have hired six
Speaker 3: actors from Tulsa. They're gonna come down give us an event.
Speaker 3: But but the event, I mean, there's so many more
Speaker 3: things going on, uh where we have a silent auction
Speaker 3: that's going live today, so that's gonna be pretty exciting.
Speaker 3: There'll be a live auction at the event. We're gonna
Speaker 3: have a wine pool, yeah, dinner and then yeah, the
Speaker 3: clue event. So yeah, the actors, they came down from Tulsa.
Speaker 3: Pretty cool little company we found they started on Shark
Speaker 3: Tank that show, so yeah Shark Yeah. Yeah, it's gonna
Speaker 3: be it's gonna be a blast. The company is called
Speaker 3: the Murder Mystery Company.
Speaker 1: Gotcha.
Speaker 3: I called them and said, you know this, this is
Speaker 3: a children's nonprofit. Can we do something less murdery? They
Speaker 3: said absolutely, We have a a missing painting style clue.
Speaker 3: So yeah, that's that's what we're gonna do.
Speaker 1: Ah, that's so much fun.
Speaker 2: And you say there are very limited tickets available, Yes, yes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this Yeah, if you want to get tickets, I
Speaker 3: would get them in to day really so yeah.
Speaker 2: And this is gonna be at the Johnstone Stair Building,
Speaker 2: the refinery up on the third floor, on the.
Speaker 3: Third floor, yeah, above hideaway. Yeah, it's gonna be really fun.
Speaker 2: And for folks who have never been up there, I
Speaker 2: mean it is a beautiful, beautiful venue overlooking downtown Bartlesville,
Speaker 2: and the chandeliers are up in the air.
Speaker 3: Personally, I think, yeah, it already gives off kind of
Speaker 3: those clue vibes a little bit, so yeah, sure does.
Speaker 1: Oh well that's gonna be great.
Speaker 2: So we'll have a missus Peacock and everybody.
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, problem exactly.
Speaker 2: And so again talk talk a bit Todd. Again we're
Speaker 2: talking to Todd Edwards. I should have said that at
Speaker 2: the very beginning. My apologies. Todd Edwards, the area director
Speaker 2: for Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Oklahoma for the
Speaker 2: Bartlesville area, And uh so talk about a little bit
Speaker 2: about you know, it is a fundraiser for your program.
Speaker 2: And again I know tons of people are are aware.
Speaker 2: Maybe just to name recognition what Big Brothers Big Sisters
Speaker 2: actual does. So tell tell our audience Todd what the
Speaker 2: goal of the organization is and how you guys operate.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, we really focus on that one to one mentoring.
Speaker 3: So kids have the opportunity to do all kinds of
Speaker 3: things in groups, after school programs, different things like that.
Speaker 3: But what we do is we just walk hand in
Speaker 3: hand with them, side by side. We ask our volunteers
Speaker 3: to come in and essentially, yeah, be that big brother,
Speaker 3: be that big sister. We ask for people to come in,
Speaker 3: you know, a couple hours a month to spend just
Speaker 3: one on one and that's that's doing simple things, cooking,
Speaker 3: dinner with them, go in grocery, shopping, hanging out, get
Speaker 3: your nails done, if your girls, you know, those sorts
Speaker 3: of things. Yeah, so that's yeah, that's what we really do,
Speaker 3: that deep, deep one to one mentoring exactly.
Speaker 2: And I know I'm again making another assumption because I
Speaker 2: haven't talked to you.
Speaker 1: About this as well, but.
Speaker 2: Historically there has been a shortage for.
Speaker 1: Specifically big brothers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so what are we looking at so far
Speaker 2: for this year as far as pairing up a mentor
Speaker 2: with a little.
Speaker 3: It's been We've had a lot of growth this year.
Speaker 3: When I first stepped in, it's only been about ten
Speaker 3: months now, we had twenty six kids on the waiting list.
Speaker 3: We have matched at this moment more kids. Well, let
Speaker 3: me say this, we've served more kids than we served
Speaker 3: last year and we have a lot of the year
Speaker 3: left to go. So we are growing so much. So
Speaker 3: when I came in having those twenty six kids, you'd
Speaker 3: think we've caught up quite a bit on that. We
Speaker 3: actually were sitting at thirty waiting littles at this point.
Speaker 3: So which it's a good thing, right, I mean, our
Speaker 3: program is having so much success. People are hearing about it.
Speaker 3: We are making such a good positive impact on the
Speaker 3: youth and words getting out. So yeah, that's that's the
Speaker 3: crazy thing is there's still a huge need. But the
Speaker 3: good thing is we live in an amazing community as well. Yeah,
Speaker 3: the people that can make that difference, that want to
Speaker 3: make that difference. The volunteers I've been seeing coming in
Speaker 3: saying hey, yeah, I'll match up with a kid outstanding.
Speaker 3: I mean, they really really are. I'm so excited about
Speaker 3: the future to hear the impact that we're going to
Speaker 3: be making next year, they're already kind of rolling in.
Speaker 3: It's amazing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, no, what I just remembered, Sorry about this.
Speaker 2: I forgot to turn on the microphone for our Facebook Live.
Speaker 2: So hold on just a second. There we go, microphone,
Speaker 2: there go, there we go. Sorry for everybody watching on
Speaker 2: Facebook Live. If you're on kwetv dot com, it's were
Speaker 2: confined Facebook Live.
Speaker 1: I forgot to punch a button.
Speaker 3: Happens.
Speaker 1: It always happens to me, it seems anyway.
Speaker 2: So again we're talking with Todd Edwards, with big brothers
Speaker 2: and big sisters, and for those of you who are
Speaker 2: just now able to hear us, we're talking about the
Speaker 2: Mystery Gala. That's coming up as a big fundraiser as
Speaker 2: well as how the organization Big Brothers, Big Sisters really
Speaker 2: serves those in our community, those kids who really need that.
Speaker 1: So the mentoring you.
Speaker 2: Were talking about, you know, just going out doing activities
Speaker 2: with kids, and you know what, what is the purpose
Speaker 2: of that, Todd?
Speaker 3: So, really are the kids that we have in our
Speaker 3: program most of them come from either a single parent
Speaker 3: or they're living with grandparents, and they just don't really
Speaker 3: get exposed to a lot of different things. We do.
Speaker 3: We do background checks, we do large interviews with the kids,
Speaker 3: and we ask a lot of good questions for the volunteers.
Speaker 3: Either we really want to match up, just a really
Speaker 3: great match. And it's so funny. I see a lot
Speaker 3: of kids come in. What are you into video games?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 3: But they're just it's not a lot. I used to
Speaker 3: want to try to dig out and I really really
Speaker 3: started realizing that these these kids really haven't been introduced
Speaker 3: to a lot of things, right, A lot of the
Speaker 3: stories we here coming in, you know, oh, my Big
Speaker 3: brothers would be fishing. I had no idea how fun
Speaker 3: fishing was or basketball, or you know, we have a
Speaker 3: little sister who was introduced to volleyball and now she
Speaker 3: she can't wait to be on the team and they're practicing,
Speaker 3: and so yeah, seeing all of that just different doors
Speaker 3: opening for them. It's inspiring. It's it's amazing.
Speaker 2: And I think you make a good point, Todd, that
Speaker 2: in order to become a big to one of these kids,
Speaker 2: you don't have to do extravagant things. I mean, you
Speaker 2: were just talking about going and fishing. You know, kids,
Speaker 2: especially some kids in our community these days, you know,
Speaker 2: they have that disconnect between what is what we would
Speaker 2: consider regular life outside of video games. You know, they
Speaker 2: don't know that some of them don't know that fishing
Speaker 2: is a great activity. You're going hiking out at Oshhill
Speaker 2: State Park is a great activity, you know, Or just
Speaker 2: as you were talking about doing something just around town
Speaker 2: for the girls, going and get their nails done, go
Speaker 2: and seeing a movie together.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's really what it is.
Speaker 2: It's about building that bond between a child an adult
Speaker 2: to make that child a more well rounded individual as
Speaker 2: they grow into adulthood.
Speaker 3: Makes them feel confident, it helps their relationships. Just give
Speaker 3: them someone that they can talk to, which I mean
Speaker 3: even as an adult, you know, I've got a wonderful wife.
Speaker 3: I'm able to come home and invent to her. Just
Speaker 3: having that person to talk to is so beneficial. And
Speaker 3: that's kind of what we what we provide when we
Speaker 3: when I had came in here stepped in. We had
Speaker 3: one really good partnership with the YMCA Biggs Littles. They
Speaker 3: can go to the y absolutely for free. And and
Speaker 3: when I first started, I wanted to make the biggest
Speaker 3: impact I could, and so I did that started by
Speaker 3: asking questions, you know, what can I do? What's our
Speaker 3: biggest hurdle? The number one answer I got was I'm
Speaker 3: just not sure what I would do if I if
Speaker 3: I had a little what do we do? So I thought, man,
Speaker 3: if we could, if we could expand on that YMCA thing.
Speaker 3: We now have sixteen different partnerships with different community members.
Speaker 3: One really amazing story just came in two weeks ago.
Speaker 3: We do have a partnership now also with the Climb
Speaker 3: Tulsa Okay, Biggs Littles again they can go absolutely for free.
Speaker 3: A big brother had stepped in and said, I'm going
Speaker 3: to take my little climbing. He's never been, so this
Speaker 3: will be really cool for him. And I was able
Speaker 3: to meet the little not too long after that, and
Speaker 3: of course he was so so excited, right, because what
Speaker 3: fourteen year old boy wouldn't be excited about climbing. But
Speaker 3: that's not what he was excited about. He said, Todd,
Speaker 3: that's I finally got to go to Tulsa. Oh wow, right,
Speaker 3: so I mean, yeah, just making those you know, his
Speaker 3: whole world was just expanded by so much. You know,
Speaker 3: here I was thinking, these partnerships are helping the bigs
Speaker 3: make it easier. It's really impacting these littles just as much.
Speaker 2: Sure, and you know, you really and to be a
Speaker 2: big I think a lot of people think that you
Speaker 2: just had to have you do have to have good
Speaker 2: moral character. I mean that I don't want to be
Speaker 2: little that but right, but you don't have to be
Speaker 2: an expert at everything.
Speaker 1: You don't have to be.
Speaker 2: Just be human, to be human and just be there
Speaker 2: as additional support for these kids in our community who
Speaker 2: may not have that outside of this program.
Speaker 3: It. Yep, don't have to be a psychologist, a child expert. Yeah,
Speaker 3: just a friend. I mean that's really what they what
Speaker 3: they want, what they need. And I hear all the
Speaker 3: time the big saying, oh I got so much more
Speaker 3: out is here. I thought I was going to be
Speaker 3: the one giving, and I've got so much out of this,
Speaker 3: So yeah, you're absolutely right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's I've spoken to a couple of my
Speaker 2: friends have have been very involved in the program, Rachelle
Speaker 2: Wilson is and Julia May in the past. She may
Speaker 2: actually be doing it again this year. She's back in town.
Speaker 2: So just talking to them and the differences has made
Speaker 2: in their lives. Yeah, it's incredible. You can tell. You
Speaker 2: can tell a big just by the smile that they
Speaker 2: put on their face where they talk about this program.
Speaker 1: It's just like it has.
Speaker 2: Been not only a life changing experience for me, but
Speaker 2: I know I'm really giving back to this kid.
Speaker 3: Who needs me, right, yep, and we know that it works.
Speaker 3: This year, they released a thirty year study through Harvard
Speaker 3: and the US National Treasury. They were specifically looking at
Speaker 3: the economic impact, and so it's always great to hear
Speaker 3: those stories, but to have a study done by Harvard
Speaker 3: and the Treasury saying Nope, we looked at kids in
Speaker 3: your program that're in the nineties. Then we looked at
Speaker 3: them now in their life compared to their peers, and
Speaker 3: they make more money, they go to college more often,
Speaker 3: they have better relationships. There were just so many different things,
Speaker 3: just positive impacts that we can see the data, the
Speaker 3: numbers on.
Speaker 2: Well, the Big Mystery Gala coming up next weekend. It's
Speaker 2: going to be a lot of fun and of course
Speaker 2: bowling for kid's sake. It's you know, a few months away,
Speaker 2: but right now it's really the active time to get
Speaker 2: those teams ready.
Speaker 3: That's it. I'm already thinking about it. We're already planning it.
Speaker 3: We made a lot of changes and we're going to
Speaker 3: continue to amp up the energy next year.
Speaker 1: Absolutely absolutely Well.
Speaker 2: We've been talking with Todd Edwards, the area director for
Speaker 2: Big Brothers Big Sisters of Oklahoma, right here in Bartlesville.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for spending some time with us
Speaker 1: this morning.
Speaker 3: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: All right, you're very welcome.
Speaker 2: All Right, K one News time and it's almost eight
Speaker 2: forty seven. We'll have our forecast.
Speaker 1: Coming up in just a bit. Stay tuned.