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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.”

Little Sister Hannah has been practicing singing “God Bless America” for a month. Last night, she sang the song in front of 36,000 fans at Boston’s Fenway Park.

One of her dreams is to be a professional performer, and after hearing her own song played on the radio and singing at Fenway, she is well on her way. But her bigger dream is to use her career to fund a foundation to help children like her – children who have cancer.

“Kids who have cancer, it’s really tough for them and their families,” Hannah says. “I want to help them, financially and emotionally, and make the experience better, and fund research.”

Little Sister Hannah was first diagnosed with a form of leukemia when she was 2 years old. She’s been in remission and relapsed, and a year ago, she was diagnosed with another form of leukemia, which she contracted from her bone marrow donor. She has spent most of her childhood in the hospital, but even now at 14, she is still positive, giggly, and warm.

“It’s not easy for her, it hasn’t been an easy road,” Hannah’s mom says. “And she does get really down, but then she bounces up, and she is just amazing, her strength, and her will are just amazing.”

“That’s my drive. I’m doing it for other kids. An I feel like I’m their voice, so I feel like I need to be extra confident.”

– Little Sister Hannah

Three years ago, Hannah’s mom enrolled her as a Little Sister through Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Ocean State. Hannah had been getting bullied and was struggling with her self-confidence. She was matched with Big Sister Brianna, and the two say they are perfectly matched.

Big Sister Brianna has visited Hannah in the hospital countless times, and now that Big Sister Brianna has studied to become a nurse, Hannah says they can talk about medical stuff. “Their relationship is so strong,” Hannah’s mom says.

When BBBS of the Ocean State was looking for a match to feature in a promotional video for ALEX AND ANI’s new CHARITY BY DESIGN bangle set that would benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters, called the Big and Little Dipper Set of Two, Hannah was chosen out of more than 500 kids to represent BBBS of the Ocean State. She had to talk her Big Sister into it.

“She did it just for me. She doesn’t really like to be the center of attention or anything,” Hannah says. “I just told her some tips, like how to be confident on camera.”

Hannah was a pro, and they shot the video in one take.

She made a big impression on the ALEX AND ANI team. They helped spread the #HeySuperstar hashtag on social media and encouraged their followers to send messages of support and love to Hannah. Tens of thousands of likes and retweets have followed, and she says each one makes her smile. ALEX AND ANI also gave her a tour of their Cranston, Rhode Island, headquarters, have sent her countless care packages in the hospital, and organized a blood drive in her honor. “They have done so much for me,” Hannah says.

Hannah is constantly thinking of ways to do more for other kids like herself. Every September since she got her first bone marrow transplant at age 6, she has tried to raise awareness at her school for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. “She makes cupcakes for her whole school with the childhood cancer awareness symbol on them, and we order stickers and pins for the school to wear,” Hannah’s mom says. Hannah gives a speech about being grateful to be in school and about appreciating health. She gives facts about childhood cancer and is open to questions and dialogue.

Singing at Fenway Park, she looked confident and proud. That’s part of her personal mission, though, to inspire other kids. “I want to show them that you really can do anything, and don’t give up, and just follow your dreams.”

Hannah’s performance of “God Bless America” at Fenway Park:

Big Brothers Big Sisters Abilene is mourning the loss of Big Sister Elise, an Abilene, Texas, detective who was killed in a car accident last weekend. Matched in 2015, Elise was a “perfect Big Sister” who had an “enormous and enduring impact on her Little Sister,” says Mark Rogers, Big Brothers Big Sisters Lone Star’s Abilene Market President. Rogers says Little Sister Brooklyn and Big Sister Elise were known for being joyful goofballs at agency events.

When Elise graduated from the police academy, she wasted no time in applying to become a Big Sister. She understood naturally that serving your community as an officer is connected to serving it as a mentor, and that the two roles would complement one another. “When she first signed up, she was on patrol, she was on night shift, but she made it work,” says Rogers.

In their Facebook post expressing their condolences to Elise’s family, Big Brothers Big Sisters Abilene says Elise was “one of our original Bigs in Blue.”

As the agency began to talk about formalizing a Bigs in Blue program, the planning centered on Elise. She and her Little Sister, Brooklyn, would be the match that showed other officers that mentoring was not only necessary but also fun. As the agency started recruiting more officers to become Bigs, they knew Elise was in the background, setting an example and encouraging them to volunteer.

Elise leaves behind a husband and infant daughter. For information on how to donate to help her family, visit abilenepolicefoundation.org.

To read BBBS of Abilene’s full post about the loss of Big Sister Elise, click here or read below.

When Sergeant Myrone Grady was a little kid, he never thought he would become a police officer. “I was a knucklehead, I was always getting into trouble,” he says. “I am from the city. I wanted to be a street kid, I wanted to run around and act a fool, and I thought I would go to Florida State, and buy my mama a house and an Escalade.”

But there was always somebody there for him. A football coach. A basketball coach. An uncle. Someone who talked to him and shifted his course. With their positive influence, he stayed focus in school and eventually became a patrol officer and then a school resource officer. Now, he’s a sergeant.

He knew he wanted to have that same influence on kids like him, so he studied social work in college. And now his list of titles includes “Big Brother.”

He was matched with Little Brother Sidd through Kansas Big Brothers Big Sisters two years ago. Now in third grade, Sidd is an outgoing, rambunctious kid who sometimes has a hard time focusing. “He’s kind of learned that if he acts up a little bit, he gets that attention, so we are working on that,” Big Brother Myrone says.

Mentoring Sidd allows Myrone to connect one-on-one and make a difference in the way he was hoping for when he first became an officer. Once a week, he visits Sidd at his school. They play games or work on homework.

“The point is to do your best and make a connection.”

– Big Brother Myrone

He says having a Big Brother who is a police officer gives Sidd a boost of self-confidence and self-esteem. “He had a sense of pride that I was his,” Myrone says. “It made him feel special when I showed up.”

Because he visits his Little Brother at school during his shift, he arrives in uniform, and it’s obvious he is a police officer. He doesn’t mind the extra attention the uniform attracts. “It’s almost like I am show-and-tell,” Myrone says. “I am high-fiving the kids, and they all want me to sit with them at lunch.”

Big Brother Myrone says he hopes the effects of getting to know an officer ripple through the lunchroom, beyond his own Little Brother. “It’s going out there and being visible. If you’re out there dealing with kids, if they see you as a person,” he says, “when those kids are 25, if they have had positive interactions with police officers, that’s what makes a difference.”

When Myrone got involved with Kansas BBBS, he approached his Chief of Police, Tarik Khatib, about getting more members of the department on board with “Bigs in Blue,” Big Brothers Big Sisters’ program created to foster relationships between police officers and Littles. Chief Tarik was not just in favor of more officers becoming Bigs; he was the first to volunteer. Having the Chief sign up to be a Big Brother made it easy for officers to take that step too.

“Some people worry that they might not be able to be as committed as they want to be, and they don’t want to let the kids down, but that’s not the point,” Myrone says. “The point is to do your best and make a connection.”

He knows that when people see the badge and the uniform, they are sometimes reminded of negative news stories, old wounds, or misperceptions. But he believes that the way to change that reality is to relate to the community, and the way to relate to the community is to get to know them authentically. “I think it’s important to know that we are cops, but we’re also regular people,” he says. “I’m a regular person – I just have an extraordinary job.”

When Amy signed up to become a Big Sister, she envisioned being matched with a 7-year-old. She thought she’d spend time with a little girl who would do crafts and run around on the playground. Instead, the staff of BBBS of Puget Sound asked her, would she be willing to be matched with a teenager?

A thousand questions ran through her mind. “What if she didn’t like me?” she thought. “I mean, I guess any age match could potentially not like me, but a teenager?”

The staff told her more about Little Sister Jasmine, and the more she learned how much they had in common, the more comfortable she became with the idea of being matched with a 13-year-old.

“Amy holds me accountable and reminds me that every decision that I make is important to my future.”

– Little Sister Jasmine

“It was on our one-year match anniversary that I knew we had formed a bond that would last a lifetime,” Amy says. “To celebrate, she wrote a song for me about what I meant to her, and then she and her younger sister performed it for me. Of course, I cried.”

Jasmine was sure of their bond much more quickly. “When I first met my Big, I was in seventh grade, and although I didn’t know how to show it very well, I loved her from the first time we hung out.”

In the five years since then, Amy and Jasmine have spent time cooking and doing craft projects, but as Jasmine grew older, they spent more time on practical goals. They studied for Jasmine’s learner’s permit. They crafted her resume, practiced interviewing, and got her a part-time job at Starbucks. They searched for scholarships and planned for Jasmine’s transition to college. She received a full scholarship to Stanford University.

“Over the past five years, our relationship has grown and evolved,” Amy says. “I have watched her change from a young girl in grade school who was still unsure of herself, to a confident young woman soon to graduate high school who has an exciting, amazing future in front of her.”

Amy may have envisioned something different in the beginning, but a bond as strong as theirs can sometimes be hard to imagine.

When Little Brother C.J.’s grandmother first took custody of C.J. and his younger sister, she struggled with C.J.’s attitude. She knew he needed a positive male role model, so she enrolled him as a Little Brother through Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Ocean State in Rhode Island.

It wasn’t long before C.J. was matched with Big Brother Adam. Hanging out with C.J. became one of Adam’s favorite things to do. The two love playing video games and eating “sticky chicken” together.

“Adam is really fun to be around and funny,” C.J. says. “Adam calls me if I do not feel well, and he really cares about me.”

“He has taught me more about myself than I could have ever imagined.”

– Big Brother Adam

But C.J.’s grandmother didn’t turn to BBBS of the Ocean State just for C.J. to have someone to have fun with. She was looking for a “positive male role model,” and Adam is definitely that.

He models caring for others and asking about their feelings, and he encourages C.J. to do the same. When they are out at dinner, Adam often suggests C.J. choose a treat for his sister. After two years of being matched, 10-year-old C.J. has matured and changed.

“The biggest accomplishment I see is in how C.J. treats others, especially me and his sister,” C.J.’s grandmother says. “He used to have very little patience and thought mostly of himself. Now, he’s always thinking of me and his sisters.”

Having fun with C.J. and teaching him lessons, is a big part of Adam’s life. His passion, though, is movies. He is the director/founder for the 401 Film Fest, through which he has raised more than $3,000 for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Ocean State. But he continues to point to his match with C.J. being the most important thing to him. “Mentoring C.J. has been the most positive, fulfilling thing I have ever done,” he says.

C.J.’s grandmother says that now, she couldn’t be happier with how C.J. is growing up. “He has matured so much, and I know Adam made this happen.”