![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/BBBS-Vert-Black-GreenRGB-1024x468.webp?resize=1024%2C468&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\u201cRight now, we need adults that are willing to come and serve our children,\u201d said school board member Lisa Miller, who is community partnership manager for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miller said there are 100 students in the school district who are ready to be \u201clittles\u201d but have no \u201cbigs\u201d available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Georgia Bailey was in elementary school in 1999 when she was partnered with her \u201cbig sister,\u201d Dana Plunkett.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cShe gave us opportunities that we probably wouldn\u2019t otherwise have,\u201d Bailey said. \u201cIt\u2019s a good escape for kids to get away from whatever\u2019s going on, even if it\u2019s just an hour at school.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bailey and Plunkett are still in each other\u2019s lives today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe reward is so great,\u201d Plunkett said. \u201cYou make a sacrifice, and there\u2019s obviously a dedication to it, but the reward is so great, and the friendship that you continue on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Plunkett is now mentoring her sixth \u201clittle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI guess I\u2019ve just been working on fractions and math,\u201d said her \u201clittle,\u201d Laila Roundtree, over lunch at school Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Roundtree, a 5th grader at Philip O\u2019Brien Elementary School, said the program has helped her improve her grades and could benefit other children too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt can help them through some hard times and it\u2019ll be good having someone that you can talk to,\u201d said Roundtree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Roundtree is one of 26 students at Philip O\u2019Brien Elementary School in Lakeland who have \u201cbigs\u201d visit them at school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Twenty students, News Channel 8 has learned, are on a waitlist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe need is great in Polk County. I have schools that have no bigs in them right now. I have schools that still have a few but are on the list to get more,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miller said the district added 3,000 students this year, widening the gap between the needs of \u201clittles\u201d and the availability of \u201cbigs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere are studies showing it increases our graduation rates,\u201d Miller said. \u201cIt increases interest in post-secondary. It increases interest in post-employment. Really that\u2019s moving our community forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Site-based \u201cbigs\u201d spend one hour a week with their \u201clittles\u201d at a nearby school or after-school site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The commitment for community-based \u201cbigs,\u201d who see children outside of school, is four to eight hours per month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA lot of people come to me or even online and say \u2018We really want to help, we don\u2019t know how.\u2019 Right now I\u2019m telling you, we need help and it\u2019s easy to do,\u201d said Miller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While all volunteers are needed, the organization really needs men to get involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To learn more visit https:\/\/bbbstampabay.org\/be-a-big\/<\/a> or fill out this form https:\/\/docs.google.com\/forms\/d\/e\/1FAIpQLSe5PGWPhSfEz1YKyiApG_kkNz_60NmD8h6gqL4ugV_wpmCFow\/viewform<\/a> or call (863) 220-1116.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There is a big problem when it comes to Big Brothers Big Sisters volunteers, according to a school board member who is partnering with the organization to grow the program… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMDFcL0JCQlMtVmVydC1CbGFjay1HcmVlblJHQi1wbmcud2VicD9maXQ9MTAyNCUyQzQ2OCZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6Ilx1MjAxOFdlIG5lZWQgaGVscFx1MjAxOTogQmlnIEJyb3RoZXJzIEJpZyBTaXN0ZXJzIHNlZXMgdm9sdW50ZWVyIHNob3J0YWdlIGluIFBvbGsgQ291bnR5IiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJoaWdod2F5IiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.jvgctGHKkNKKFP1GHuyUSvYTrQhB3Awyj3nI6xJrewYMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":53692,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/BBBS-Vert-Black-GreenRGB-png.webp","type":"image\/png"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[10837],"class_list":["post-53691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-we-need-help-big-brothers-big-sisters-sees-volunteer-shortage-in-polk-county"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53691"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53693,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53691\/revisions\/53693"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}