Every Monday during the school year, Gavin Boling, a nine-year-old student at Kramer Elementary, stays after school for an extra couple hours.
Gavin is a “Little Brother” in the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America program, a non-profit organization that pairs mentors with kids under 18. These mentors are called “Big Sisters” or “Big Brothers” and are assigned a “Little” based on mutual interests and backgrounds.
Molly Reinhart, a senior kinesiology major at Miami University and Big Sister to Gavin, heard about the organization during her first year at Mega Fair. Reinhart said when she saw how much the organization needed volunteers, she felt compelled to help.
“There was such a big need for Bigs to match with Littles because there were so many kids on the waitlist,” Reinhart said.
According to the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Butler County website, the county has 64 kids, like Gavin, who are still waiting to match with a mentor. Scott Stephens, the CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Butler County, said finding volunteers is always tough but it’s even harder since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We always struggle to get adult volunteers, specifically men, but volunteerism has dropped since COVID,” Stephens said. “So there’s this effort to really get people back out, doing things in their community and giving of themselves.”
Gavin started attending the after-school program three years ago. His mother, Valerie Potts, said she put Gavin in the program because she wanted him to have someone other than herself that he could talk to. Since being matched with Reinhart, she has noticed a positive change in her son.
“He’s confident,” Potts said. “He’s grown into himself a little bit.”
When Gavin sees Reinhart, they work on homework, play outside and do activities together. Gavin said some of his favorite things to do with Reinhart are building with Legos and playing checkers on the board she got him for his birthday.
“I build a helicopter, airplane, McDonald’s … And we also play checkers,” Gavin said.
Reinhart said she loves being a Big Sister because she enjoys watching Gavin as he learns and grows. She defines her relationship with Gavin as a friendship rather than a brother-sister dynamic.
“I like to think that I’m a friend to him,” Reinhart said, “and [I like] that he’s comfortable telling me things about his family and things that are bothering him at school.”
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Stephens said that the rewards for college students in the program are immense. He said he believes volunteering for the program can change people’s lives, even if they don’t realize it at first.
“I think a benefit is that you grow as a person,” Stephens said, “as you learn how to negotiate things, as you make a child a priority, as you try to help teach a child different things, you grow as a person as well.”
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