Page 2 - Hawaii Island MidWeek - May 17, 2023

2 HAWAI‘I ISLAND MIDWEEK MAY 17, 2023
Celebrating Years Of Mentorships
By Tyler Kurashige, COO of Big Brothers Big Sisters Hawai‘i
Out Of Touch
In 2015, a 7-year-old child named John was paired with a mentor in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. At the time, he was dealing with the loneliness of not having a father in his life. He was withdrawn, unhappy and preferred the comfort of video games over playing outside. Over the past eight years, John’s men- tor has provided friendship and encouraged him. John now enjoys surfing with his mentor, and is responsible and considerate. He’s doing well in school with a 3.9 GPA and his mother credits his mentor for changing his life trajectory.
Our mission at Big Broth- ers Big Sisters Hawai‘i is to build and support relation- ships to ignite the biggest number of possible futures for Hawai‘i’s youth. Found- ed locally in 1963, the pro- gram originally started as a way to address recidivism in the juvenile justice sys- tem. Since then, research has shown that mentoring builds self-confidence and self-esteem, and fosters resilience. Similar to John, many youth and families are seeking this type of support but don’t know where to find it, or lack access to mento- ring friendships. Our pro- gram creates a much-needed bridge.
This year, we’re very ex- cited to restart our school mentoring program. We’re able to do this with the support of U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz and the federal fund- ing he brought to Hawai‘i. Our programs will be of- fered free of charge to stu- dents in 23 Title I Elemen-
Idon’t know about you, but I sometimes long for the days when we didn’t have “instant” communication. Land- lines and pay phones were for the most part our only means of staying connected. Although I will admit if you have teenagers, mobile phones are a necessity for their safety in emergencies.
Phone calls then were like personal handwritten letters or cards that we get in the mail. We would call grandparents or relatives on special holidays or birthdays. Remember long distance calling cards? We also always looked forward to a phone call from our dad while he was on military deployment. I guess the lack of frequency made the calls special. Kind of like only opening presents once or twice a year for Christmas or your birthday.
Then along came pagers that told us to call someone im- mediately. It became somewhat of a status symbol to have one — like doctors did when they were needed right away. Of course, everyone started carrying pagers. Cellular phones had already emerged, but that was for the very wealthy as they would cost an arm and a leg. The closest thing us “regular people” could get was a short-range personal walkie-talkie from The Sharper Image.
Youth Ryan and mentor at a Big Brothers Big Sisters event. PHOTO COURTESY BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS HAWAI‘I
Eventually, Motorola, the company that made our black and white TV growing up, came out with an affordable cel- lular phone as did Nokia, Sony and Radio Shack. Suddenly, I was tethered to everyone who had my phone number.
tary schools on O‘ahu, Maui and Kaua‘i. Our school programs provide greater access to mentoring those identified by school coun- selors as needing social and emotional support.
DIRECTOR OF CONTENT/ SUPPLEMENT PRODUCTS RON NAGASAWA
EXECUTIVE EDITOR
BILL MOSSMAN
MANAGING EDITOR
NICOLE MONTON
PRESIDENT & PUBLISHER
DENNIS FRANCIS
CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER
DAVE KENNEDY
SALES MANAGER
SIERRA HETHCOTE
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Blackberry more or less introduced email on their phones. Then everyone came out of the woodwork with flip phones. I was amused by flip phones as they were the closest thing to the communicator I had seen on Star Trek as a kid. Much later the Dick Tracy-like Apple iWatch would come out.
The greatest need we have is for our volunteer mentors. They come from all back- grounds and life experienc- es, but the one commonality is that they all care and want to make a difference for a child.
The global culture had changed. I read somewhere that Hawai‘i actually was the leader back then in cellphone usage. Now you can’t go anywhere without seeing someone engag- ing with their mobile phone. I’m guilty as charged, but my family has taken it to another level.
Sometimes I’ll put my phone on silent and forget to turn it back on. My wife will call me but not leave a message. She would rather call me an additional 10 times until I answer. She will also text and, if I don’t respond in like 30 seconds, she will put out an All-Points Bulletin on me and fill out a missing person’s report. She will also enlist our daughter, who adds another 20 phone calls and texts.
If anyone is interested to learn more, they can go to our website bbbshawaii.org to schedule an inquiry call where we provide more in- formation.
When I finally respond and ask what the emergency is, my wife will say, “I just wanted to know what you want for dinner.” When I get home, I’ll promise our dogs, Buddy and Wilson, to never put a leash on them again.
Information on events and other ways to support can also be found by emailing info@bbbshawaii.org. You can also call 808-521-3811 and visit bbbshawaii.org.
rnagasawa@midweek.com