Big recognition for volunteer mentors

By Kate Hayden, khayden@charlescitypress.com

Students and adults kicked off Friday morning on the right note at the annual Start Something Big Breakfast, hosted by Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northeast Iowa.

The breakfast invited supporters and the 25 mentor/mentee matches that are active in Floyd County this year. Members were served at the Charles City Elks Lodge by members of the Charles City Rotary Club. Twenty businesses donated in-kind or to the silent auction, with all money raised going to support Floyd County mentor/mentee matches.

“Our organization runs a lot with volunteers, so anytime we can recognize those people, we definitely will,” special events coordinator Casey Conry said.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northeast Iowa can serve up to 65 matches in Floyd County, and is still recruiting more potential mentors to serve kids in the region.

“We have a lot of Bigs that are going through the process right now,”  CEO Katie Orlando said. “We’ll be matching 16 more kids hopefully in the next two to three months.”

The organization is hoping to recruit businesses interested in the new workplace mentoring program as well, she said. The program is based off of a similar initiative in Waverly, and would allow businesses to partner with kids interested in shadowing employees once a month.

“We’re using [Waverly] as a guideline to show how easy it is and how successful it can be, to hopefully come to Charles City,” Conry said. “There’s some great businesses here in Charles City that would be perfect for it.”

“We like to recognize those people, but we want to educate others about what we do and how we serve the community,” she added.

The 2017 award winners are:

• Cindy Kuehn, Rookie Big of the Year
• Christine Rimrod, Big of the Year
• Gloria Carr, Volunteer of the Year
• Valero, Rookie Business of the Year
• Zoetis, Business of the Year
• Terri O’Brien, Program Champion of the Year