SHEBOYGAN – Lucas Kuhn and Franklin Spencer havegone on countless adventures since they were matched as a mentor and mentee by Big Brothers Big Sisters WI Shoreline five-and-a-half years ago.
They’ve made homemade pizzas, gone bowling and seen movies like, “Avatar: Fire and Ash.”
They’ve walked around Evergreen Park, gone fishing and played video games together.
Kuhn also taught Franklin archery, shooting at Winooski Bowmen Archery Club in Plymouth and on Kuhn’s family’s horse farm. Franklin can now shoot the bow his grandpa gifted him.
“It’s nice. I get to hang out with someone,” said 13-1/2-year-old Franklin. “It’s a nice opportunity for me, especially since I don’t have a big brother.”
Franklin’s mom, Jacqueline, wanted to sign him up for BBBS because she thought he needed a little bit more support and connection. He was about 8 years old at the time.
Jacqueline has seen Franklin become more open to trying new activities since being matched as a Little with his Big — the terminology BBBS uses for its mentees between 6 and 18 years old and their adult mentors.
“We don’t know anybody on a farm,” Jacqueline said about Franklin being able to shoot his bow. “He has the opportunity to see those things, try things that he wouldn’t normally get to do.”
Big Brothers Big Sisters mentor pipeline cut off
Around the time Franklin was matched, BBBS WI Shoreline’s waitlist of Littles across Sheboygan and Manitowoc climbed as traditional avenues of finding prospective Bigs closed up during the pandemic.
Denise Wittstock, CEO of BBBS WI Shoreline, said the organization heavily recruited Bigs from local employers, but the pandemic shifted access to the workplace. In one way, more employees, opting for remote or hybrid schedules, stopped coming into the office.
That lack of access, combined with a historic decline in volunteerism across the United States during that time, has made it difficult to get mentors on board with a minimum one-year commitment to provide consistency, guidance and friendship, she said.
Wittstock said the waitlist has hovered around 200 children since the pandemic. According to the BBBS WI Shoreline 2025 annual impact report, 195 children were waiting for a match last year.
BBBS WI Shoreline has even asked schools to stop referring students to the program, Wittstock said.
“We’ve hit our max, and we’re not going to be able to make much progress,” she said.
Within that waitlist, 75% of prospective Littles are boys, and it’s more difficult to get men to volunteer. They may not know how to spend time with a child or feel uncomfortable being alone with a child that’s not their own, Wittstock said.
Bigs are not alone during their mentorship experience. They’re supported by a professional BBBS staff member, who acts as their coach and can discuss concerns about safety, serving as an emotional support or other issues.
BBBS also organizes group outings through REACH. The events help foster community among Big-Little matches during different activities focused on developmental pillars of recreation, education and careers, arts and culture, civic engagement, and health and fitness.
“There’s a lot of barriers that we can overcome if we have the opportunity to talk about our program with people,” Wittstock said. “It’s certainly not something you can overcome on a billboard.”
Anecdotally, Wittstock said she’s heard Bigs look at the world differently, are more empathetic and are more productive at work in the afternoon after returning from mentoring.
Kuhn, an engineering manager at Sargento, doesn’t have children of his own, but he said he’s always liked teaching others, especially skills he learned from his parents.
Together, Kuhn and Franklin have built a bow rack, fixed the sight on Franklin’s bow and laser engraved one of Franklin’s water bottles. They also built a model rocket when Franklin was younger.
“Witnessing him experience (something) for the first time, that’s pretty cool,” Kuhn said.
BBBS WI Shoreline is still working to recruit mentors. Last year, the organization served 301 children and fostered 75 new matches. Wittstock said the organization tries to connect with prospective Bigs at job fairs, and it has had to significantly increase spending on digital marketing and advertising.
According to nonprofit tax return forms filed with the IRS, BBBS WI Shoreline spent about $10,950 in 2021 and $12,040 in 2022 in advertising and promotion. That ballooned in the following two years: about $56,550 in 2023 and about $55,230 in 2024.
‘There’s never enough people to be a village for your kid’
A more positive development in the local BBBS program since the pandemic has been a growing desire for mentors among students in eighth grade and older.
At that age, Wittstock said the program used to see young people pull away from adults in their lives, even Bigs. But she suspects this cohort of students whose elementary and middle school environments were disrupted during the pandemic want more support.
In addition to the community-based and school-based mentoring programs, BBBS WI Shoreline established new programs for young adults.
In the Mentor You program, a BBBS staff member meets with a high school student to discuss academic planning and career readiness. Students can earn high school credit for participating in the meetings.
In Big Futures, young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 can be paired with a mentor as they navigate new territory in early adulthood, like career readiness, local networking and civic engagement.
While BBBS WI Shoreline can be vital for Littles without two-parent households or living in low- or reduced-income households, Wittstock said more mentees are coming from two-parent households, too, emphasizing mentorship is critically valuable to a child’s success.
“Young people are saying, ‘I’d love to be a mentor. I don’t have a coach, I don’t have a pastor. I don’t have a teacher to look up to,’” Wittstock said.
That was the case for Jacqueline. She and Franklin’s dad are actively involved in his life. She said he wasn’t experiencing a “troubled life” at home.
Jacqueline said, “There’s never enough people to be a village for your kid, and I just think that’s something that I wish more people knew about the program.”
Contact Alex Garner at 224-374-2332 or agarner@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Sheboygan Press: Sheboygan teen’s match shows stakes of BBBS mentor shortage
Reporting by Alex Garner, Sheboygan Press / Sheboygan Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Alex Garner, Sheboygan Press | USA TODAY Network
