Our Work with Big Brother Big Sister

The mission of Big Brother Big Sister of Central PA  is to ceate and support one-to-one mentoring relationships that ignite the power and promise of youth.  They create and support pairs of "Bigs" and "Littles" who create long-lasting caring relationships.  We met Zach Maser from BBBS through the PSU Intergenerational Leadership Council, and we have found several ways we can contribute to their cause.

Our work with BBBS is described below.

In this event Doing Good with Wood mentored “Bigs” and Littles” from Big Brother Big Sister as they made and learned to play wooden kazoos. The event was held at the Bellefonte Youth Center located on North Spring Street in Bellefonte. DGWW Mentoring was provided by: David, Jan, Glenn, and Kyle.

 While participating in the Penn State Intergenerational Leadership Institute and the Intergenerational Friends Fair, we met and quickly formed a relationship with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Centre County. At the Friends Fair BBBS had a chance to see our kazoo making event in action, and they invited us to join them on July 9th from 1:00 to 4:00 in Spring Creek Park to host a similar event.  

John, Glenn, and Kyle volunteered to supervise the event and we were pleased to draft Eric Spielvogel as a first-time mentor for this activity. It was a great setting, with Spring Creek running in the background, and we were able to work more closely with a smaller group of about 15 people, about 80% on whom were female. Thanks to our new friends at Big Brother Big Sister and to our DGWW Staff as well, for another fun, worthwhile event.

 At the request of Big Brother Big Sister Case Manager Zach Maser, DGWW built and donated a corn hole set with the Big Brother Big Sister logo prominently on the front and our Doing Good with Wood logo on the top.  Zach and the other case managers will use the set at BBBS events and when recruiting Penn State students as “Bigs” and at other family events as well.