Val Sinesi contacted me the other day. He’s executive director of Big Brothers of Rhode Island and he was hoping I could plug an event they have coming up in a couple of weeks.
It’s the "Big Brothers of Rhode Island 14th Annual Walk-a-Thon for Fatherless Boys." It’s taking place at Roger Williams Park on Saturday, May 4. The 5-K jaunt begins at 10 a.m. at the Boat House.
The Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc.’s Rhode Island chapter is the main corporate sponsor. Dozens of local businesses have signed on to help.
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For more information you can reach Sinesi at 432-9955.
That’s the plug. The short version.
But talk to someone like Val Sinesi who has been with the same organization for 32 years and you are bound to uncover something more.
Sure enough, Sinesi will tell you about Brian Hodess and his relationship with the Big Brothers organization. It qualifies as that "something more," even if it isn’t quite unique by Big Brothers standards.
Hodess is a businessman. He is the co-president of the Hodess Building Company, his family’s 30-year-old construction company.
When Hodess was a freshman at the University of Vermont in 1981 it hit him one day that he could be doing something more than studying education – that he could be living it. He contacted Big Brothers and soon found himself in the company of an eight-year-old boy. The boy was from a single-parent home. He had an attitude. There was some anger in there.
But Hodess saw past that. They built the foundation of a friendship on weekly outings. Simple outings, like going out for pizza – kicking a ball around. The anger in the boy subsided. The friendship solidified. The years passed. In no time at all, Hodess became a college graduate and his Little Brother embarked on his teenage years.
"After four years of college, I never felt it would end," said Hodess. "I didn’t see how it could end."
Well, it didn’t end.
The two stayed in touch. The Big Brother went to work. The Little Brother went to high school. They both did well.
The Little Brother earned a scholarship to Tufts University. Summers during college he lived with Hodess. Then the Little Brother got a degree of his own, in engineering. For a few years he worked for Hodess. He moved on to another company to expand his experiences. And then a couple of years ago he was back in school. In a month he will earn a law degree from Rutgers University.
The Little Brother has a job lined up at a Providence law firm for next fall, where he expects to specialize in construction law. This coming summer, while he studies for the bar, he’ll again take up residence in the Hodess home.
Hodess is quick to deflect credit for how well things have turned out for his Little Brother. But still, it did something so immeasurably important.
"Having a mentor would help anybody," says Hodess. "The consistency of our relationship showed him he had options. He realized he could do whatever he wanted to do. It was his drive that made it all happen."
Sinesi says the experience that Brian Hodess has had is not an uncommon one. The Big Brother program has built a lot of real friendships over the years. The Rhode Island program boasts of 150 matches. There are another 300 boys in the program waiting for a Big Brother to come into their lives. Sinesi figure there are as many as 1,000 boys out there.
"The need is just so great," he says. "It’s increasing. There are so many boys growing up without dads."
A male role model means a lot, says Sinesi. Sometimes it’s important, he says, for a boy to hear a man say that his mother is right. That he should be reading that book at night. That he should respect others.
The program is sophisticated. There is a thorough screening process. It includes five references, a police check, a DCYF check and a visit of the Big Brother’s home by a social worker from the organization.
"We don’t accept everyone," says Sinesi.
That’s the extended plug.
A call, not only to walk. But to consider something more. Sinesi would love to see you at Roger Williams Park. But even better, he’d love for you to consider being a Big Brother.
"I tell the Big Brothers that the best friend they may have their whole life could be their Little Brother," says Sinesi.
