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Nerium International has been a strong partner of Big Brothers Big Sisters since 2012. Each year, thousands of Nerium Brand Partners donate a portion of their monthly commissions, raise funds through Bowl for Kids’ Sake, and many have become Bigs.

Debbi-Jo (D.J.) is one of those Brand Partners who, after attending the Nerium Get Real Conference, decided to become a Big Sister. She was inspired by the Nerium Chief Leadership Officer Renee Olson, who spoke at the Conference about being a Big to her Little Sister, Ryan.

“I remember thinking, ‘If Renee Olson, whose life is even crazier than mine, can find the time, I have no excuse,’” D.J. says.

When D.J. got back to her home in Rhode Island, she simply asked the local affiliate, BBBS of the Ocean State, “What do I have to do?”

Not long after, she was matched with Little Sister Caira.

Caira was 16 at the time of their match. It’s around that age that many affiliates stop matching youth. She still had two years to be mentored before graduating high school, though, and  D.J. felt strongly that she could make a difference for Caira.

The two years have been nothing short of amazing, D.J. says. They have enjoyed getting their nails done, gardening, making dream boards, and so much more.

“She is shy, but once she’s been around you, she just, like, comes out of herself,” D.J. says. “She really has blossomed.”

Now, Caira is preparing for college. She hopes to become a social worker and work with children with disabilities. Her “official” match through BBBS with D.J. may be ending, but she knows that she’ll always have her Big Sister in her corner if not by her side.

“We’ve already decided we are going to remain friends forever,” D.J. says.

For the fourth consecutive year, Corner Store is hosting a “down home family fun” event across the nation with their Corner Store Country Run. Proceeds from the race will benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters and local children’s charities in each city.

Participants are encouraged to wear their best country attire, with many runners donning their best cowboy hats and rocking their best pigtails. While a lot of racers do wear typical race gear, many do come to the event dressed in flannels and overalls.

When the race starts, runners go through a farm-themed trail, encountering experiences such as hay bales, tractor tires, and farm animals (inflatable ones) throughout the 5K.

When the race is over, everyone is invited to a post-race party with giveaways, food, and more.

The Country Run kicked off in early July in Denver, but will continue in the fall in four other stops. If bringing out your inner cowpoke or cowgirl and running for a good cause interests you, don’t miss it!  If you can’t make it to a race, visit your local Corner Store in the month of September to donate to Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Former NFL tight end Konrad Reuland was always mentoring others, helping younger boys reach their goals. His sudden death of a brain aneurysm at age 29 left his family and friends devastated.

To honor Konrad, his family and friends have established the Konrad A. Reuland “Little” Scholarship through Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. Each year, proceeds from this fund will be awarded to a Little Brother within the network who is interested in playing football and attending college.

This year, the Konrad A. Reuland “Little” Scholarship was awarded to Jonathan “J.J.” Barajas from Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County.

Little Brother J.J. has been matched with Big Brother Sean for 10 years. J.J. is a linebacker and was captain of his high school football team. He will be attending Goldenwest College this fall, and he hopes to transfer to University of Nevada, Reno, to study sports medicine and pursue his dreams.

J.J. says he is thankful to have had a mentor like Sean growing up because Sean gave him the motivation needed to tackle the difficult decisions in life, both on and off the field.

Each year, BBBSA will award the Konrad A. Reuland “Little” Scholarship to remind us of Konrad’s extraordinary life.

When Big Brothers Big Sisters of America Board Member Liz Smith completed her two-year term as Board Chair in 2016, the Board wanted to honor her service. Liz is an extraordinary leader and helped the National Office through its most challenging years. The Board came together to endow a scholarship in her name. Every year, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America will award a college scholarship to a Little in the network who demonstrates leadership in high school.

This year, the Elizabeth A. Smith “Little” Leader Scholarship was awarded to Shayna Eshmoili from Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters Association of Los Angeles.

After losing her mother at a young age, Little Sister Shayna was matched with her Big Sister Farnaz in middle school, and their relationship stayed strong throughout her high school years.

When Shayna was in high school, Farnaz often had to remind her to step back and find a balance between school and social life. Among other activities, she was president of her school’s Red Cross chapter and captain of her school’s FIRST Robotics team, which went to the competition’s international championships.  “I grew a lot during that time period. She was there to help me through that,” Shayna says. “She was there to give me advice on classes, social things, getting through those four years alive.”

Shayna now attends the University of California at Los Angeles and is still highly involved with extracurricular activities. She and Farnaz are still close, and Big Sister Farnaz still has to remind Shayna to balance all that she takes on.  

“She has been there for so many milestones and her presence has been such a comfort to me over the years,” Shayna says.

The last question kids hear at the end of the school year is, “What are you doing this summer?” The first they hear once back is, “What did you do?”

For kids, summer is the time to gather with the family and RV to a camping ground, take a trip to the beach, or spend a weekend bouncing between amusement parks. But for many kids, this is not reality.  They end up not only with bad answers for their friend’s questions, but also bouts of loneliness.

This summer, our partner, Benchmark Resorts and Hotels launched a campaign to try to combat that by sending BBBS Littles and their families on trips of a lifetime.

One of those families was the family of Little Brother Bryce. He and his family stayed in the luxurious Doral Arrowwood in the grassy hills of New York.

Benchmark pulled out all the stops for Bryce. As soon as Bryce walked in his family’s hotel room, he was met with balloons, special gifts and a card from the staff.

“Everyone was so welcoming and made Bryce feel like a star,” Bryce’s mom said.

Bryce spent most of his time in the pool with friends he made, but he also enjoyed private tennis lessons, a movie night with s’mores, and a tour of the kitchen with Chef Michael. Benchmark also provided the family with passes to Playland for a day of roller coasters and attractions.

Bryce’s mom says, “(We) had an amazing weekend and made lots of memories to always remember. The experience we had at (the) resort was extremely special.”

Thanks to Benchmark, Littles like Bryce will have quite the story to tell when he gets back to school.

The BBBSA National Conference featured a modern-day child star, Markees Christmas, stopping by.

Markees was the star of the movie “Morris from America,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last year. The movie won the Walda Salt Screenwriting Award.

But before Markees was making people smile at Sundance, he was a Little Brother exploring his hometown of Los Angeles with Big Brother Matt. At the National Conference, they both took the stage to speak about their match and the home movies they made that paved Markees’ road to stardom.

Matt started by making one thing clear.

“I didn’t go to them and say ‘I need your best child actor,’” he said. “The movies started like three years after we were paired together, and frankly three years, two activities a month, we just sort of ran out of things to do.”

He went on to say that the movies proved to be a hit as the two began making short videos with Markees playing himself, an older version of himself, and even his own love interest (dressing in a dress and a wig).

Matt says, that the video were just for them and they sat on his hard drive for months. It wasn’t until Markees began having a tough time in school that Matt came up with the idea to submit the videos to a local film festival.

Matt thought, “I’ll take him and it’ll screen on the big screen and hopefully make him proud of the work he did because he did a great job.”

The two went and in the beginning, Markees was buried in his hoodie, nervous about showcasing his talent. But Markees had nothing to worry about, because that night a star was born.

“It got laughs and Markees slowly came out of the hoodie,” Matt says.

Markees went on to win “Best Actor” at the Channel 101 Awards, and it wasn’t long before he nailed an audition and was in Germany filming “Morris from America” with Matt watching on set.

The hashtag for the 2017 BBBSA National Conference was #BBBSTogether, and few people know how to better come together than Hall of Fame cornerback Darrell Green. Green played all 20 of his NFL seasons with the Washington Redskins and won two Super Bowls in two different decades with the team.  

He spoke to the crowd at the National Conference, and got everyone fired up in his gold Hall of Fame jacket.

“I just kind of want to be a cheerleader,” he came out and said. “I use to play a lot. So, I don’t know the cheers, but I know how to cheer. And I want to cheer for you.”

He more than cheered though. He motivated.

He told the crowd about when he was a walk-on in college, he wanted to be ready for his “right now moment” to shine.

He said that when he was a seasoned vet in the NFL, that he didn’t undermine a new coach in front of young players because he felt like “leadership is always in play.”

He related both to the workplace, telling everyone the moment to be ready is always “right now,” and reminding everyone that the even when things are tough, that is when it is most important to be a leader.

His many anecdotes and motivational phrases had everyone ready to go out on a football field.  

He ended his speech saying, “We are ready when…” before the crowd responded, “Right now!”

The crowd was ready. And it sounded like a cheer.

Twenty-one years ago, a young reporter named Kate Snow was trying to make it at a new television station, in a new city, Albuquerque, New Mexico. She didn’t know many people, and she wanted to spend her free time getting involved with her new community. So, she stepped into the local Big Brothers Big Sisters affiliate, and signed up to become a Big Sister.

Her Little Sister, Amanda, is now in her 20s, and Snow says that through the years, the impact has gone both ways.

“It started out, with me mentoring her mostly, but I’ve always learned from her, even in the beginning, when she was little,” Snow says.

Wanting to have an impact not just for her Little or her local agency, Snow also served as a BBBSA National Board Member for 10 years, has hosted the National Awards Gala 10 times, and has brought attention to Big Brothers Big Sisters through her platform on television, most recently highlighting the launch of BBBSA’s national police mentoring initiative, Bigs in Blue. She is about to take on another key role in the BBBS Network — serving on BBBS of New York City’s Board of Trustees.

For all she’s done, earlier this summer, Snow was awarded the prestigious Charles G. Berwind Lifetime Achievement Award at the Big Brothers Big Sisters National Awards Gala.

But even on stage at the Gala accepting her award, she talked about her Little Sister. “It’s not just that I’m her Big Sister,” Snow said. “She’s my Little. And she has my back. I have gotten so much out of my match with her, that I never in a million years would have imagined when I signed up.”

Snow’s relationship with Big Brothers Big Sisters will always be something special, but her own match with own Little may always be the most important.

The Big Brothers Big Sisters of America National Conference in San Diego, California, was more than indoor workshops and sessions. At the end of Day 2, attendees loaded up in buses to take a trip to Petco Park for a San Diego Padres game.

The game fell on June 27, which the Mayor of San Diego officially proclaimed “Bigs in Blue” Day, honoring Big Brothers Big Sisters’ one-to-one mentoring program created to build stronger relationships between police officers and the communities they serve, Bigs in Blue. At the event, Big Brothers Big Sisters of San Diego County became the 15th agency to receive a grant from BBBSA for their Bigs in Blue program.

The Padres were a key sponsor of the BBBSA National Conference, and they honored Big Brothers Big Sisters before the game and invited BBBSA President and CEO Pam Iorio to throw out the first pitch.

Her pitch may have bounced, but it was right down the middle and the catcher didn’t even have to move.

BBBS employees and friends filled the stands, rocking their purple and white baseball tees. The day was a Big win for Big Brothers Big Sisters!

Bigs in Blue is the first national campaign of its kind. To learn more, visit www.BigsinBlue.org

Little Brother Jaylen was getting in trouble at school and earning low grades, and his mother was struggling to raise him and his two siblings.

“I was single and wasn’t working. His father was not around,” she says. “There is a lot of crime, and children weren’t graduating. I wanted more for my children.”

Hoping for some relief, she enrolled both of her sons as Little Brothers through Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta, and Jaylen was matched with Big Brother Michael.

Things started to change for Jaylen at school and at home. “His entire morale has gone up,” his mom says.

“I admire EVERYTHING about Mike! I really want to be just like him when I grow up.”

– Little Brother Jaylen

When Jaylen’s school had an event called “Donuts with Dad,” he invited Michael. “Going to the school that day and hearing him tell everyone how we were ‘brothers’ and watching them try to make sense of it was literally the sweetest, most surreal and proudest moment of my life,” Michael says.

Now, Jaylen tries to follow the rules at school. He works hard at his schoolwork. He even won a school-wide spelling bee. But Little Brother Jaylen says the biggest change has been in how he interacts with others. “Mike has taught me a lot,” Jaylen says. “He has taught me how to respect people and how to treat other people how they treat me.”

A couple of years into their match, Michael and Jaylen had an important conversation. Jaylen’s brother’s Big Brother had left the program, and he was now without a Big. Michael talked to Big Brothers Big Sisters and informally took on mentoring Jaylen’s brother, too. Then Jaylen’s twin sister needed a Big Sister. So, Michael introduced Janiyah to his girlfriend, who became Janiyah’s Big Sister.

Even though there are now three siblings on their outings sometimes, Michael is conscious of making sure he and Jaylen still have one-on-one time together. “I cannot wait to watch the three of them graduate high school, move on to the next chapter, and to remain part of their lives for as long as I live,” Michael says. “I look forward to the day they become ‘Bigs’ and ask me for advice.”