Sprint continues to support Atlanta community with $25,000 grant Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta

Sprint continues to support Atlanta community with $25,000 grant Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta

Sprint recently announced the Atlanta recipients of the 2011 Sprint Local Grant Program and the 2011 Sprint Community Champions program. The Sprint Local Grant Program annually awards two $25,000 Sprint Foundation grants to Atlanta-area non-profits that support Sprint’s focus area of youth development, and this year selected Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta (BBBSMA) as one of its recipients. The Sprint Community Champions Program annually recognizes outstanding Atlanta-area residents who have made a positive impact on the community with Sprint Foundation grants to qualified non-profit organizations of the honorees’ choice. Grants were presented and Community Champions honored at a local reception last night.

The 2011 grant recipients and Community Champion honorees for Atlanta are as follows:

• Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta was selected as a 2011 Sprint Local Grant Program recipient and will receive a $25,000 Sprint Foundation grant for its Mentoring Children of Prisoners program, which will provide 1,000 children who have an incarcerated parent or guardian with specialized one-on-one mentoring over a 24-month period. Youth enrolled in the program will spend at least four hours per week with a mentor engaging in positive activities specifically focused to equip them to handle the issues that arise as a result of having a parent in prison.
• GivingPoint Inc was selected as a 2011 Sprint Local Grant Program recipient and will receive a $25,000 Sprint Foundation grant for its Growing Gardens, Connecting Neighbors, Cultivating Communities project. GivingPoint is a center for learning, leadership, character and service for young people ages 13 to 24, and this project will allow 4,000 students from four local public schools to work together to transform 5,000 square feet of land by building and enhancing community gardens. The students will improve the environment, learn about the world around them, produce food to feed the community, create healthy eating habits and positive lifestyle changes, and leverage technology to support their volunteer efforts.
• Smyrna resident Nikki Wilson was selected as the 2011 Sprint Adult Community Champion, and the Sprint Foundation awarded a $5,000 grant to her selected charitable organization, Dream Makers Youth Foundation. Wilson spends much of her time assisting disabled and special-needs children in the community. Dream Makers is a non-profit that Wilson started seven years ago that provides community-based educational, recreational and therapeutic services to children with special needs throughout metropolitan Atlanta. Through the organization, Wilson provides much-needed equipment for these children, frequently using her own funds to do so.
• Canton resident Sean Andreassen was selected as a 2011 Sprint Youth Community Champion, and the Sprint Foundation awarded a $1,250 grant to his selected charitable organization, Habitat for Humanity-North Central Georgia. Andreassen is an avid volunteer with Habitat for Humanity who assists with framing, siding, painting and any other projects that need to be done. Andreassen became so involved with the program that he even started a Habitat for Humanity club at his school – a club that grew to more than 40 members, helped construct a home for a deserving family and raised $5,000 for a site build.  
• Chamblee resident Nina Tran was selected as a 2011 Sprint Youth Community Champion, and the Sprint Foundation awarded a $1,250 grant to her selected charitable organization, Center for Pan Asian Community Service. Tran has been involved in many community programs, including Community Action for Teens, a community-service group for high-school students (Tran served as the club’s historian); Project Exhale, an event that helped raise healthy eating habits in the community (Tran was a co-lead organizer); and Digital Connectors, a program teaching high-school students computer skills which the students then teach to others in the community (Tran participated in the program and was actively involved in getting other student participants).

BBBSMA thanks Sprint for its support of the intrepid Mentoring Children of Prisoners program. To learn more about corporate and community support of BBBSMA, please call 404.601.7061.

Sprint is a long-time supporter of the Atlanta community, and this is the third year Sprint has conducted the Sprint Local Giving Program and the Sprint Community Champions Program in the market. In total, these programs have provided more than $172,000 in support to local non-profits, including Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta, The Georgia Ballet, Hands on Atlanta and Imagine It! Children’s Museum of Atlanta. To learn more about either program, please visit www.sprint.com/localgiving.  

About Sprint Nextel
Sprint Nextel offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline communications services bringing the freedom of mobility to consumers, businesses and government users. Sprint Nextel served more than 53 million customers at the end of 3Q 2011 and is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including the first wireless 4G service from a national carrier in the United States; offering industry-leading mobile data services, leading prepaid brands including Virgin Mobile USA, Boost Mobile, and Assurance Wireless; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone. Newsweek ranked Sprint No. 3 in its 2011 Green Rankings, listing it as one of the nation’s greenest companies, the highest of any telecommunications company. You can learn more and visit Sprint at www.sprint.com or www.facebook.com/sprint and www.twitter.com/sprint.

About the Sprint Foundation
Since its establishment in 1989, the Sprint Foundation has supported community organizations across the country with a special emphasis on K-12 education, positive youth development, arts and culture outreach, and Internet safety. Through direct grants and a robust matching-gifts program for employees and retirees, the Sprint Foundation creatively and thoughtfully delivers Sprint’s commitment to championing the communities where Sprint customers and employees live.

Make a BIG Difference with Forever 21

National Fashion Retailer Launches Big Brothers Big Sisters Charity Line with “Bigs” and “Littles” as Stars in the Advertising Campaign

Forever 21 is giving customers an easy way to make a difference this holiday season. Beginning November 11 the trend-setting retailer’s top 250 stores will offer a Big Brothers Big Sisters charity t-shirt line where one dollar from each sale will benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters, giving customers a fashionable way to support the organization’s proven mentoring programs.

Forever 21’s Big Brothers Big Sisters line features five different t-shirts for men and women that range in price from $10-$18. With bold graphics and wording such as “Go Big,” “You HEART Me” and “Start Something,” the t-shirts are sure to please all the fashionistas on your shopping list this holiday with the added bonus of contributing to Big Brothers Big Sisters. In Metro Atlanta, visit the Forever 21’s Perimeter Mall location to find the Big inspired designs.

“We are grateful for Forever 21’s support and leadership in showing that there are many ways to start something for children to put them on the road to success. Proceeds from each t-shirt sold will help Big Brothers Big Sisters provide the safe, strong, successful, long-term mentor matching and support services that produce positive outcomes that are unique to our programs,” said Karen J. Mathis, president and CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America.

Ads featuring real Big Brothers Big Sisters mentor-mentee matches will appear in stores throughout the country. As the faces of Forever 21’s holiday charity line campaign, Mark Todd and his Little Brother Marvin, together with Naomi Rodriguez and her Little Sister Teresa, are inspiring others to support the mentoring programs that help kids who face adversity beat the odds simply by purchasing a t-shirt.

“Forever 21 is thrilled to announce its collaboration with Big Brothers Big Sisters. We feel that it is increasingly important to invest in the communities where our consumers are living, working and shopping; and to provide our customers the opportunity to give back as well,” said Linda Chang, Senior Marketing Manager for Forever 21. “We are honored to be involved with a charity who serves as such a bright light for youth.”

Big Brothers Big Sisters relies on funding to carefully make more mentoring matches, like Mark and Marvin or Naomi and Teresa, and provide ongoing guidance to the volunteer mentors, mentees and their families so that the relationships yield positive results. Big Brothers Big Sisters holds itself accountable for helping children achieve positive measurable outcomes including educational success, risky behavior avoidance, improved relationships, higher aspirations and greater confidence.

Buy Your Tees Here

About Forever 21
Forever 21, Inc., headquartered in Los Angeles, is a specialty retailer of women's and men's clothing and accessories, known for offering the hottest and most current fashion trends at a great value to consumers. Forever 21's model of fast fashion works by keeping the store exciting with new merchandise brought in daily. The retailer operates over 480 stores in the United States, with international operations in Canada, Europe, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Philippines, and United Kingdom. For more information please visit: www.forever21.com.

About Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta (BBBSMA)
Founded in 1960, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta (BBBSMA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and an affiliate of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. The Mission of BBBS is to provide children facing adversity with strong and enduring, professionally supported, one-to-one relationships that change their lives for the better, forever. In 2010, BBBSMA served more than 3,200 children ages 6-18, in a 12-county service area, making it one of the largest affiliated agencies in the United States. For more information about Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta or to sign up as a volunteer adult mentor, please visit www.bbbsatl.org or call (404) 601-7000.

Little Brother enjoys a Big day with Georgia Tech

Six year old Amari had never seen the Ramblin’ Wreck barrel through the tunnel at Bobby Dodd Stadium. He’d never been so close to a marching band and he never imagined that his name and his face would be broadcast throughout a stadium holding 55,000 fans. Before Saturday, Oct. 8, 2011, Amari had never been to a football game. So imagine Amari’s surprise when he and his mentor, Amrit were ceremoniously escorted through security, past the awaiting Georgia Tech marching band, right down the sidelines for a once in a lifetime experience on the football field.

Amari is a Little Brother in the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta (BBBSMA) program and he has one heck of a Big Brother in Amrit, a 24-year-old graduate of Georgia Tech and avid Yellow Jacket fan.

This fall, Big Brother Amrit won a BBBSMA Facebook contest to receive two tickets to the Georgia Tech vs. Maryland game and a visit to the sideline where his Little, Amari would participate in the official coin toss and get a sideline view of kickoff.  

So on game day, Little Amari met the head official who talked to him about the importance of good behavior then taught him how to flip that heavy bronze coin. With his Big behind him and hand resting on his tiny shoulder, Amari masked his excitement and stood patiently on the sideline for the team’s rousing run onto the field, the national anthem and Buzz’s mascot introduction. Then it was time – time to march to the center of the field, with team captains looming large above to participate in a tradition as old as the game itself. After a few words to the players, the man in black and white stripes handed the coin to Amari and told him to flip it. The moment was captured on the big screen at Bobby Dodd Stadium and the fans erupted as Georgia Tech won the toss - a moment Little Amari will never forget.

Amrit and Amari are one of more than 3,200 metro Atlanta matches created and supported by BBBSMA. The two met in May 2011 after Amari was enrolled by his mother into BBBSMA’s Mentoring Children of Prisoners (MCP) program.  Amari’s father was incarcerated in 2006 and is serving an 18-year prison sentence. Like nearly 77,000 children in Georgia, Amari has a parent in prison and few men in his life to look up to. That is until Amrit, Amari’s friend and role model – a Big Brother to teach him new things, and take him new places. New places like the campus of Georgia Tech and Bobby Dodd Stadium.

In the summer of 2011, BBBSMA and Georgia Tech Athletic Association partnered to provide unique experiences for Bigs and Littles in a collegiate environment and bring much needed awareness to the cause of youth mentoring. These experiences at Georgia Tech have included a Big & Little Volleyball Clinic in July, an Ice Cream Social with the football team in August, tickets to various Yellow Jacket sporting events, and an upcoming cheerleading and dance clinic for Littles.

“Our partnership with Georgia Tech Athletics allows us create new opportunities for the children in our program, especially those children of prisoners,” says BBBSMA President & CEO Janice McKenzie-Crayton. “Our program is all about opening new doors for children, giving them the hope and the tools they need to achieve a better life.”

For over 50 years, BBBSMA has been providing children facing adversity with strong and enduring, professionally supported one-to-one relationships that change their lives for the better, forever. Children matched with a Big Brother or Big Sister for just one year exhibit significant improvements in academics, increased self confidence, more trust in their parents and other adults and tend to avoid of risky behaviors. These children are more likely to set goals and graduate high school rather than abuse drugs or fight with their peers.

Through financial support and volunteerism, children like Amari are able to experience places like Georgia Tech with Big Brothers like Amrit. To learn more about how you or your organization can Start Something BIG, please visit www.bbbsatl.org or call 404.601.7000. 

 

Georgia Tech BIG Ice Cream Social

It was a hot day on The Flats, but 25 Bigs brought their Littles, including one Super Big with his TWO Little Brothers, to Bobby Dodd Stadium on the campus of Georgia Tech Saturday for the first ever BIG Ice Cream Social.

Read more: Georgia Tech BIG Ice Cream Social