Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Greater Chesapeake, which serves the Baltimore area, has had a huge increase in volunteer inquiries after the recent protests and violence.
Currently, the mentoring group has mentor matches with more than 1,000 young people, about half of them in Baltimore. In all of 2014, it got 641 inquiries from potential volunteers. It's received 300 inquires from new potential volunteers in the last week alone.
Which is good news, because Big Brothers Big Sisters has a waiting list of more than 600 kids.
This is from Terry Hickey, president and CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Greater Chesapeake: “We are devastated by what has happened here in Baltimore. It will take strength and time to rebuild our city, and we believe mentorship plays a large role in that. Our focus is to connect strong role models looking to make a difference with local youth facing adversity.”
I've been part of a tutoring program in Chicago for more than 30 years, and it's helped me as much as it's helped the kids I've tutored. There's nothing like that one-to-one bond.
If you're in the Baltimore area and you want to help, you can find out more or contact Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Greater Chesapeake here.
That's all -- just a little newsy PSA.