Aloha Friends and Supporters,
As just one of many 60th Anniversary celebrations to come this year, we held our first-ever Golf Fore Kids’ Sake tournament last month. A sold-out throng of 162 golfers teed-off and played the beautiful Hoakalei Country Club course with vendors and activities at every hole! It was a great time for all that raised both awareness and funding for our youth mentoring programs.
Mahalo to all of the sponsors, participants and volunteers, plus the Hoakalei management and staffers, and GS Events Hawaii. And to our awesome tournament committee of board members James Chan, Blaine Fujimoto, Jared Kashiwabara, and Shane Mizusawa, congratulations on making your vision of a “best golf tournament ever” come to life! Together with coordinator Kathy Driver and our own staff, you created a super successful and fun time for everyone that allowed us to meet and welcome many more friends into our Big Brothers Big Sisters Hawaii ‘ohana. Check out some of the photos in this issue, on our website, and on our social media.
We continue to receive inquiries from parents and guardians who would like to have a mentor for their child or youth. While we have a number of women ready to be matched with girls, we don’t have as many requests for female matching. On the other hand, we never have enough male mentors to pair with the boys we enroll to be matched. Yes, being a mentor involves a small commitment of time and energy. It’s very rewarding and we encourage you guys out there to check us out to see if it’s a good fit for you.
To sum up, dads, moms, grandparents, or guardians raising a daughter, we have women mentors who want to help. Anyone raising a son, we want to help you too, but we need more male volunteers; and anyone raising a youth who identifies with or fits as LGBTQ+, we want to learn from you and connect you as a mentor, or youth-to-be mentored. We know there are more LGBTQ+ children and youth who can benefit from a mentor friend.
Wishing you peace and great connections,
