The LaGrange satellite office of Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Chattahoochee Valley, BBBSCV, announced their fundraising and mentor recruitment plans for this Spring.

Executive Director Angela Crouch, along with the agency’s board members, have been busy planning to help the youth of Troup County.

“We presently have 52 children who are successfully matched with adult mentors, but we have another 22 kids who are on a waiting list,” Crouch explained. “We try to match the volunteer, the ‘big,’ with the child, the ‘little,’ so that it will be a positive experience for both individuals. This year we need as many female volunteers as we do male.”

To help with the recruitment of the needed mentors, on March 1st, between 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Big Sam’s Barbecue of LaGrange will be hosting a BBBSCV recruiting event. Crouch will be at Big Sam’s and she is thankful for the opportunity to meet with potential mentors.

“Sam Mitchell, the owner of Big Sam’s, is like our big brother, he helps us out a lot. Any way that he can help us out, he always does, even before we ask,” Crouch said. “This Friday, we are hopeful that we will meet a number of new volunteers who will be able to become mentors. They will make it possible for us to take a few more of the kids off of our waiting list.”

The BBBSCV agency runs two different mentoring programs and while both programs have a one-year commitment for both the volunteer and the child, they differ slightly in the number of contact hours and the places where they meet. The school-based program requires the “big” and “little” to meet four hours a month with the meetings only taking place in the school environment. The community-based program has them meet a minimum of eight hours a month with the meetings taking place outside of the school environment.

“Most of our children in the program are between the ages of 6 and 13, and are from low-income, single parent families. Complete background checks are done on both the volunteer and the child before we ever put the two together,” Crouch said. “Since we are a non-profit organization, fundraising is an important component to our programing.”

On April 27th, the agency’s 4th Annual Oyster Roast will again be held at Highland Park, in LaGrange.

“Our event is the same day as Relay for Life. We are giving discounts to both Relay for Life participants and to individuals who buy tickets for an entire table. After people finish Relay for Life they will be able to come to our oyster roast to relax and enjoy themselves,” Crouch said. “We also still have opportunities for corporate sponsors for this event.”

On April 5, 2005 BBBSCV opened the satellite office in LaGrange. The LaGrange office complies with the established operational guidelines and licensing standards of BBBS of America.

For further information on how to volunteer, enroll a child in one of the agency’s programs or for any of the planned events, please call 706-298-0589.