Play time with meaning

Published 7:30 am Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Mauracio Olguin is outgoing and full of energy as he goes to work with crayons and a coloring book next to his “Big Buddy” Christian Saenz.

“I’m having fun!” the fourth-grader declares without anyone having asked him. Later he volunteers that while he has two older brothers, he doesn’t get to spend as much time with them as he wishes he could.

Saenz smiles quietly. A sophomore at Southeast Whitfield High School, Saenz said he enjoys spending time with his “Little Buddy” at Valley Point Elementary School through a Big Brothers Big Sisters program his entire Project Success class participates in.

“When I was little, I had a Big Buddy, too, and it was fun hanging out with him,” Saenz said. “He would just read to me and play games and stuff.”

The Big Buddies program is for high school students or adults who pair up with a child and visit him or her at the child’s school once a week. Teachers and school counselors select young students they believe will benefit the most from having an older mentor in their lives, and the mentors, or Big Buddies, spend an hour or so each week with them.

“We’ve been doing the buddy program for nine years, and through those years it’s kind of expanded,” said Project Success teacher Crystal Bryant. Bryant coordinates the youth development and leadership skills program with assistant Arnetta Faulkenberry.

Carmen Flammini, Hispanic mentoring director with Big Brothers Big Sisters, said that while individual students in other area schools participate in the program, Southeast is the only one to devote an entire class to it. Sophomores, juniors and seniors apply to be in the class and undergo background checks and interviews. They must have good attendance and a reference from a teacher who has known them for at least a year.

There are 27 Big Buddies and 104 Little Buddies with each teen having more than one match. The Project Success class visits Valley Point on Mondays and Fridays, and class members visit their matches at Antioch Elementary and Eastside Elementary on Tuesdays.

Three students in Bryant’s class will do a SkillsUSA presentation on their experiences later this year.

Sophomore Desiree Anderson said she likes being able to come to school and be with Little Buddy Taylor Laurie, a third-grader at Valley Point.

“She loves to go outside,” Anderson added while taking a break from a game of Uno in the school’s cafeteria.

The activities the matches share are often playing games or going out to the playground. At other times, the pairs just talk.

Sometimes, Bryant said, the younger children want to dress like their Big Buddies or fix their hair like theirs because they look up to them so much. Sometimes the Little Buddies share personal details about their family life, and a counselor will step in to offer assistance, organizers said.

“We like to play a lot,” said Ariana Lerma, a fifth-grader who was playing Candyland with Southeast junior Veronica Ruiz.

Coming from a family of five children, Ruiz said she often felt as a younger child she could have used a little extra attention. So when she and Ariana are together, Ruiz takes on a kind of big sister role. She wants to help Ariana not to be shy, to give her advice about life and just to spend time with her letting her know someone cares.

While the younger kids benefit, Project Success is also about helping high school students develop their own abilities, Bryant said.

“It’s a class that prepares them for their future,” she said. “We want them to be better people, be the best they can be.”