Annie Schave met her little sister about three months ago and the pair has spent about four hours a week together ever since - but they’re not related.
Schave, a science education junior, is president of Spartan Bigs, an MSU extension of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Lansing Inc. in its first year as a registered student organization.
Her match, Jazmine, likes to spend their time together talking, eating ice cream and playing outside.
“I like just hanging out, laughing and being a kid again,” Schave said. “It’s just like having a little friend.”
Big Brothers Big Sisters matches children in single-parent families with mentors. Spartan Bigs works with the organization to increase involvement and plan activities for unmatched children.
This year Spartan Bigs held a Christmas party, an MSU women’s basketball game trip and bowling nights.
“There are way more girls in the program than guys and therefore the little girls get matched right away,” she said.
There are about 100 boys who don’t have a match.
For some of those boys, Spartan Bigs developed the Lunch Buddies program.
Lunch Buddies volunteers who don’t want to do one-on-one mentoring go to an elementary school once a week and spend lunch and recess with the children there.
Computer science sophomore Mike Ply was matched with a fifth-grader at Bath Elementary School.
“I like to help him with his problems,” he said. “You get to learn a lot about how kids think and that’s always a good thing.”
Molly Wicks, vice president of Spartan Bigs, said sharing insight about children with other mentors is an important part of Spartan Bigs.
Wicks, a communication junior, said she enjoys ice skating, trying on clothes at the mall and eating at Wendy’s with her little sister.
According to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Lansing Inc., matched children are 46 percent less likely to start using drugs, 27 percent less likely to start drinking, 52 percent less likely to skip school and 33 percent less likely to hit someone.
“It’s a good excuse to do all of the things you did when you were younger,” she said.
Bob Johnson, executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Lansing Inc., said Spartan Bigs is important for the volunteers as well as the children.
“College students make up a significant amount of the population around here,” he said. “I think if we can get people to volunteer in college, they are more likely to volunteer shortly after.”
Many children need someone to look up to other than his or her parents, Johnson said.
“The volunteers are not there to be a parent,” he said. “They are there to be a friend.”
