Big Brothers Big Sisters announced today the celebration of 85 years of providing mentors to children throughout North Texas as a testament to the power and impact of life-changing one-to-one mentoring relationships.

The humble beginnings of the “Dallas Big Brothers Club” were originally founded by Ms. Jessie A. White, a young probation officer of the Dallas Juvenile Court in 1926.  She was distraught at the futures that awaited the boys filing through the court system.
 
“When a child is brought to us there are only two things to do with him,” White said. “We can send him to the reform school or we can send him back to the same conditions from which he came. What these boys need is a friend that the boy can count on, who can give him the feeling that someone is especially interested in him.”

Upon this realization, Ms. White took a step, which would forever change the futures of Texas children.  Ms. White visited civic organizations, churches and clubs to recruit mentors and generate support for the Big Brother movement, which began in New York City 23 years earlier. Through the support of Judge F.H. Alexander and the Dallas Rotary Club Boys Committee, which began the process of recruiting businessmen to serve as mentors, the Dallas Big Brothers Club was ultimately born on February 24, 1927.

Today, Big Brothers Big Sisters Lone Star is the nation’s largest Big Brothers Big Sisters agency, serving over 9,000 children last year across a service area that includes 106 counties throughout Texas.  From Houston, to Dallas/Fort Worth and from Paris to San Angelo, Big Brothers Big Sisters Lone Star is now the nation’s leader in one-to-one mentoring.

“We celebrate in the memory of Jessie White and Judge Alexander whose vision in 1927 we uphold and value to this day,” stated Big Brothers Big Sisters Lone Star President and CEO Charles Pierson.  “Literally, hundreds of thousands of lives have been positively changed forever through the foundation that was laid 85 years ago.”

For more information on the history of the organization and how you can get involved as a mentor or donor for the organization, go to www.bbbstx.org/history <http://www.bbbstx.org/history> .

Big Brothers Big Sisters is a donor-supported volunteer organization that places caring adults in the lives of children in one-to-one mentoring relationships. Through the positive impact of those friendships, children with a Big Brother or Big Sister are more likely to graduate from high school and are less likely to begin using drugs, begin using alcohol or engage in negative conflict. For more information, contact 888.887.BIGS or www.bbbstx.org.