This week, I’m joined by one of my favorite people, Jaymee Harvey Willms of Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Washington County.
On this week’s show, Jaymee and I talk about their upcoming Bowl for Kids Sake bowling event, which helps raise money to support the organization. She also shares that BBBS of Washington County is in need of a new roof for their building in West Bend.
[00:00:00] Fuzz Martin: Hello there, General Kenobi, I am Fuzz Martin, and this is Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz. I started this podcast because I was frankly over. All the negativity on social media and I wanted to do something positive for our community. So here we are. Here you are. Thank you for listening. Jaymee Harvey Willms is the CEO of Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Washington County.
She’s also a big sister and she’s also a podcaster and she’s also Uh, awesome. And today, Jaymee joins me to talk about a really fun event that I’ve participated in in the past. My youngest daughter has won an awesome, uh, biking helmet from Mountain Outfitters in West Bend from this event, and we still have it to this day and it’s awesome.
Anyway, Bowl for Kids Sake is a multi day and location bowling event that helps raise money for kids. Four big brothers and big sisters of Washington County. So we’re going to jump into it. Here we go. Fifteen Minutes on Bowl for Kid’s Sake with Jaymee Harvey Willms. On Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz.
So Jaymee, you’re the CEO of Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Washington County, but you’re also a big sister. So how did you get started with Big Brothers, Big Sisters?
[00:01:48] Jaymee Willms: I am a Big Sister, so, um, I actually was working in other non profits in Washington County that were youth serving organizations, and I saw the need for Bigs.
I had quite a few kids that I was working with that I just kept hearing this kind of ambiguous term of the waiting list. And I was sitting there going, wait, why, why are they waiting? And I went home and said that to my husband and he was like, um, you can definitely do something about that.
[00:02:18] Fuzz Martin: And
[00:02:19] Jaymee Willms: so, um, we filled out some, some paperwork really briefly.
And, um, I became a big sister just a little under five years. So it’ll be five years, I think, in April. And so I was matched with my little, and we were matched based on a mutual interest in art.
[00:02:38] Fuzz Martin: Uh,
[00:02:39] Jaymee Willms: yep. So they really wanted, um, to make things they had had. Um, Ben matched twice before, and the matches just kind of didn’t work out, and so, um, I was, it was kind of third time’s the charm, and it was, uh, I walked into the house for our first match, first match meeting, so, with big brothers, big sisters, when you first become a big.
You inquire, maybe on our website, maybe through a phone call. You fill out some paperwork. We do a very extensive background check and you interview.
[00:03:12] Fuzz Martin: Okay.
[00:03:12] Jaymee Willms: In that interview process, we ask about likes, dislikes, what is your background? What do you want to do as a mentor? And um, we also do the same thing with the parent and the little.
What are you looking for in a big? What are your expectations? And then you’re matched based on those mutual interests rather than time. So we do have some kids on our waiting list that have been waiting for years.
[00:03:35] Fuzz Martin: Sure.
[00:03:36] Jaymee Willms: Because we’re looking for the right person. Once you go through all of that, you go and you meet maybe at the Littles house.
It could be in her office. And you meet, um, mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, whomever the guardian may be, and you meet your little and there’s a match support there. One of my team members who’s there to make sure everything goes smoothly, make sure we go over the rules, how this works. And so I walked into my little’s house and they didn’t say a word.
No talking. And mom happened to be out of the house, so mom was on speakerphone and dad was kind of just working his way through some of the information with our match support. And at one point I was like, yeah, I’m an, I’m an artist. I, I, so in my, other life. I, I’m an artist. So, and my little gets up and they sprint into their bedroom, come back with this wide rule notebook and just start flipping through pages.
No words said. And I was just like, okay, I can tell you want, you’re like looking for that connection, but we don’t know each other yet. So, you know, fast forward five years later. And last night we went snow tubing and the whole time we’re just talking about school and life and You know, I’m always checking in on their grades, making sure that they’re feeling successful in school.
In the beginning, it was a lot more like, what do you like? And we just tried a lot of things, but Now, sometimes it’s just, hey, do you want to watch Netflix and eat pizza? Because that might be what we both need right now. Yeah,
[00:05:10] Fuzz Martin: but it comes down to providing that companionship and somebody to be there, right?
[00:05:16] Jaymee Willms: Absolutely, and so I was able to become that big. My husband became a big actually a few months later. And right around that time, there was a call for a new executive director, and I applied for the position, having worked with all of our youth here in Washington County, coming from non profits, rigorous interview process, but somehow I landed in charge.
[00:05:39] Fuzz Martin: Uh, well, you’re doing a great job and helping to elevate the need for big speakers. Because you said there’s this waiting list. What got you over that, that hump of, like, not knowing, you know, like, what goes into being a big and what that commitment is going to be and, you know, can, you know, will, will I be successful at this and will, you know, how did you get through that decision?
[00:06:02] Jaymee Willms: Yeah, I think that’s a really good question, because I think that a lot of the world, sometimes we are waiting for permission to do something, right? And we’re like, am I capable of doing that? So if you’re listening right now, I’m giving you permission. This is your sign. So I had known about Big Brothers Big Sisters for so long.
I knew, you know, it was one on one in some way. I knew there was like a school buddies program. I’ve lived in, you know, four different states and I had always like seen it, you know, so I knew it was nationwide. A lot of times we’re lumped in with the YMCA and Boys and Girls Club and that can be really confusing.
And the difference really is that we do one on one, one on one mentoring.
[00:06:44] Fuzz Martin: Here in Washington County. Here
[00:06:45] Jaymee Willms: in Washington County. And actually really across the country, one on one mentoring is our goal. We do do some group mentoring programs or work with like the juvenile justice system and, and we do facilitate.
Definitely other types of programs, but really one to one mentoring is our focus. And we know that when volunteers and adults in our community get involved in a child’s life who’s maybe is at risk in some way, that we see the dividends pay off across the state. So if we just want to talk about Wisconsin, 98 percent of our littles do not become parents before the age of 18.
97 percent are graduating from high school. And if we just talk about here in Washington County, we have a hundred percent high school graduation rate of the kids that make it to graduation.
[00:07:32] Fuzz Martin: Great.
[00:07:33] Jaymee Willms: And, you know, just thinking about last year’s group of like 12 that graduated, there was one student who had experienced homelessness for like seven years.
There was another student who was first generation college bound, Her big sister had been a little that was also first generation college bound. So when we look at where we know we are successful, we know that putting a caring adult in a child’s life that hangs out with them twice a month and just checks in.
Makes the world of difference for most of our kids.
[00:08:14] Fuzz Martin: Sure, and how long, so you said it’s twice a month. And you talked about the, you know, getting Netflix and, or watching Netflix and getting pizza. And doing, you know, snow tubing, other things that you might go about and doing. How long are those encounters?
So, so from somebody’s time commitment sake.
[00:08:32] Jaymee Willms: Yeah. So it kind of just depends on the person. You can be a big brother, a big sister, a big family, or a big couple. Last night we had a big family that was snow tubing and mom didn’t want to tube. So dad was going down the hill with the little and the sister was there.
With a family or a big couple, you can definitely split up that dynamic on your time commitment. So that’s the first thing I want to mention because I think a lot of people don’t know that we can do that as a group. I think a lot of people think, okay, I need to spend eight hours. We’re going to go to SkyZone.
We’re going to see a movie. We’re going to make a production of this. No. Uh, 86, that thought, get rid of it, throw it out the window. For a lot of our kids, just somebody who’s checking in.
[00:09:12] Fuzz Martin: Sure.
[00:09:13] Jaymee Willms: Um, I talked to a big sister last month who had, they’ve been matched for 12 years, but the little came in. And the Littles life has been really, really difficult through loss, and they’re navigating grief in the last year.
And they just put some music on in the Big Baked, and the Littles sat on the couch and read. They didn’t even talk.
[00:09:32] Fuzz Martin: Sure.
[00:09:33] Jaymee Willms: And so, sometimes we just need to be a safe place. So, it can be as involved or uninvolved as you want it to be. We do have bigs that go hunting. We have a little who got their first turkey three years ago, and like, there’s a video of it and it’s hilarious.
For some of our kids, they’ve never mowed a lawn before. Let’s do some house chores. Let’s learn how to do some of these things, especially if you’ve spent time maybe in foster care or Maybe you’ve lived in an apartment building your whole life and the big has a yard. Let’s learn how to do some of these things because they’re new skills.
And then on the other end, so we have a donor who donates every year so that we can go snow tubing.
[00:10:12] Fuzz Martin: Okay.
[00:10:12] Jaymee Willms: So we had 38 people at the Snow Hill in Kewaskum and everybody was snow tubing last night for two hours. Cool. Totally supported by big brothers, big sisters. So we try to make sure it’s also free and low cost.
So, two hours, eight hours, whatever you’ve got, really it’s that consistent, caring adult, whatever that means.
[00:10:32] Fuzz Martin: Sure. What is the need in Washington County for bigs? Where, where are the holes right now?
[00:10:40] Jaymee Willms: That, oh, I like that. Where are the holes? That’s a great way to phrase it. Um, so, typically, our biggest need is typically in West Bend, and our second largest need is in Hartford.
Mm hmm. Today, however, post pandemic, that need has changed a little bit. We see the greatest need is for male volunteers or family volunteers in Hartford. We have about 46 kids on our waiting list. Some of them have been on the waiting list for three to four years. And the largest group on our waiting list are boys, and that’s, that’s true across the country.
So Washington County isn’t special in that way, but we, we know the capacity for men and families in Washington County. And we know that when we put the call out in, in places like this, people do, do come to us and say, Hey, I can make that happen.
[00:11:32] Fuzz Martin: From an ideal standpoint, let’s talk about, uh, Finding male bigs.
What do you look at? Are they typically married, have kids, unmarried, uh, age ranges? What’s, what’s the
[00:11:44] Jaymee Willms: We’ve literally got it all. So I just had a big, um, and their match closed because the little is moving. But I had a big out in Hartford. He was 82. Okay. And he had two littles. And they went kayaking and they did farming and they would do all these, I mean, he was a very active man.
[00:12:00] Fuzz Martin: Sure. Yeah.
[00:12:00] Jaymee Willms: Age, no discrimination. And, and really quite honestly, some of our matches with someone who’s like 45 plus are super stable, right? Financially
[00:12:12] Fuzz Martin: stable. They’ve been in the area for a while, those kinds of things.
[00:12:15] Jaymee Willms: Correct. And let’s say you’re a 12 year old boy in Hartford. Hartford. A 55 year old who’s like borderline retired and has a four wheeler in a cabin.
That’s the dream, man. Let’s do that. I want to go fishing. I actually
[00:12:28] Fuzz Martin: could use a big, uh,
[00:12:31] Jaymee Willms: Yeah. Can I
[00:12:32] Fuzz Martin: knock, knock, knock? Uh, no, that, that’s great. So there is a lot that goes into your job and matching these up. How many, uh, how many, uh,
[00:12:42] Jaymee Willms: So, in 2021 we served, uh, 150 youth.
[00:12:47] Fuzz Martin: Okay.
[00:12:47] Jaymee Willms: That is a lower number. So, if you are really familiar with us, you know, in 2018, we served 215 kids.
[00:12:54] Fuzz Martin: Okay.
[00:12:54] Jaymee Willms: Actually, I think it was 213 if I want to be really accurate. And so that number dropped significantly when COVID 19 hit. And, and, you know, I understand it’s hard when the world is telling you we need to stay apart from each other to invite a new person into your circle. So we’re really working on growing that.
So this year we are in 2021. We served, it was like around the 145 to 150 mark of youth. Today we carry 110 matches with about 50 kids on our waiting list.
[00:13:24] Fuzz Martin: Okay. All right. And then in order to run the program. The organization yourself. So the, the Big Brothers, big Sisters of Washington County. Mm-Hmm. is its own subset of the big brothers, big sisters of Wisconsin.
Right? So,
[00:13:36] Jaymee Willms: of America. Of America, okay. Mm-Hmm. . So I am a little too, to my own horn . I’m the Vice President of the Wisconsin Association. Really? We’re an affiliate of. Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, they help us handle our insurance policies, they help us with our marketing, you know, um, overarching standards and goals, they do a lot of the child safety research and, and research on how impactful mentoring is.
So, um, I think that’s one of the reasons that we’re here is we want to be able to provide a platform for us and then kind
[00:14:07] Fuzz Martin: of give us the tools here at the local level to deploy as needed. Sure. And then from the needs of your organization, there’s obviously funds that are involved and keeping the lights on and a new roof and things like that, that you need.
So, um, you have events throughout the year and such and you have one coming up. Yep. Football for kids sake. And I’ve participated in it. It’s a lot of fun. It’s packed with bigs and littles and sponsors and people bowling and fun. And so it’s coming up in February, right?
[00:14:34] Jaymee Willms: Yes. So, um, Bowl for Kids is actually a nationwide event.
So almost every agency does a version of this, but here in Washington County, in a non COVID year, we would bring in about 350 bowlers. We bowl in West Bend and we bowl in Hartford. Our bowlers raise 75 a person, so you can raise that, you can donate it, you can absolutely go above and beyond it. Our top fundraiser every year, he has a sponsor that will donate 10 a pin.
Okay. That he hits during his two hour session. Nice. So, he always, um, just, you know, it’s always like, I need you to bowl a good game! Everybody back up! Let him focus! But yeah, so, uh, Bowl for Kids, our goal this year is to raise 50, 000. Big Brothers Big Sisters takes about 400, 000 a year to run.
[00:15:24] Fuzz Martin: Okay.
[00:15:24] Jaymee Willms: And this year that is increased.
We do have a need for a new roof. We own our building in historic downtown West Bend. And, uh, you know, we try to be a good steward in the community. Um, it has become very apparent that we need a new roof.
[00:15:40] Fuzz Martin: Sure.
[00:15:41] Jaymee Willms: So we’re really trying to call on the community this year to show up in sponsorships, to come and bowl.
Our bowlers raise over 20 percent of what is raised at this event specifically. When you do bowl, you receive a t shirt, we feed you, we give you pizza. There’s, we don’t pay for the beer, but. You can have one or as many as you need, but we do lane games. We have some really, really spectacular raffle prizes and we try to make it, we have a DJ.
The theme this year is under the sea. We have this great shark eating a bowling pin as our logo. So we do really advocate that people come and dress up for the event. It’s, it’s a, so I
[00:16:20] Fuzz Martin: should show up in scuba gear.
[00:16:21] Jaymee Willms: Yes, please. Or if you’ve got coconuts, grass skirt, whatever, you know, I’m not,
[00:16:27] Fuzz Martin: No, no, no, no, now the wheels are spinning.
Right. It’s going to be on three dates this year, right?
[00:16:34] Jaymee Willms: Yeah, so it’s February 26th. The Thursday, the 24th, and Saturday, the 26th, those dates are both in West Bend at Kingpin.
[00:16:45] Fuzz Martin: Okay.
[00:16:46] Jaymee Willms: And Kingpin does a really, really great job for us. It’s a ton of space, so we’d really love to fill up their lanes. In Hartford, we are bowling at Friday night at Dave’s Lanes.
If you know Dave’s, it’s, we’ve got cheap booze. We’ve got tons of party people. It’s quite the experience. And then in the morning of the 26th, we do bowl at Dave’s Lanes, but that’s just for our matches. So we bring out the, we’ll bring out the beach balls. Bumper bowling is out, you know, it’s, it’s, um, but we do have some ready to be matched kids that come.
So we do look for volunteers to come and bowl with a child that isn’t matched on that date.
[00:17:21] Fuzz Martin: Again, that’s coming up on February 24th,
[00:17:25] Jaymee Willms: Yes.
[00:17:25] Fuzz Martin: Your website is?
[00:17:29] Jaymee Willms: bbbswashco, W A S H C O dot org. So three B’s, one S, washco. org. You can get to the bowling registration page from our site.
[00:17:40] Fuzz Martin: Okay.
[00:17:41] Jaymee Willms: If you’re on our site too, you’re able to do your sponsorship.
Elaine sponsors 250. If you would like to sponsor a team and receive Elaine sponsorship as a company, that is 600. Okay. And that’s Those dollars go really, really far. We’re a lean team. Sure. We really try to invest in our matches. Child safety is a priority. And so is a new roof.
[00:18:02] Fuzz Martin: And again, that all goes to support Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Washington County.
Jaymee, thank you for coming on. Thanks for all you do for, for the community and for kids and, uh, and bigs here in the area. This, uh, it’s very cool. We’ll be a part of it again, and I invite you to come back on and talk about other events as you’re coming up, but hopefully we can get that roof built for you and keep your papers dry.
[00:18:24] Jaymee Willms: Yeah. I think that that would be I love dry papers. Thanks for having me on. You know, I love that we have this local podcast. I think that that’s, that’s great. It’s kind of a rare thing in a lot of communities, so I’m just thrilled that we have the chance to share.
[00:18:37] Fuzz Martin: Yeah. Thank you very much. Appreciate you having, uh, you coming on.
As always, thank you for listening to another episode of Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz. Fuzz. If you ever have an idea for the show, HMU, as my child would probably write on TikTok, hit me up. The easiest way is email 15withfuzz at gmail. com. Spell that out. F I F T E E N, not the number. Spelled out at gmail. com.
15withfuzz at gmail. com. And that will do it. Have a great week. We will talk to you next Monday. New episodes post every Monday at midnight right here on the show. You can also find me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, all at 15 with fuzz. We’ll talk to you next week right here. Thanks for listening.
