20 Hours with Karen Mathis- Posted By Bill Bee

What an amazing 20 hours I just completed with our National President/CEO for Big Brothers Big Sisters of America.

Monday evening offered the initial platform for Ms. Mathis to engage 40 of our Board & Council members, several significant funders (current & future) and numerous local businesses; the setting was Phillips Point Club – incredible vistas and magnificent food. Thank You, Mary Healy for creating the wonderful setting.

The group, while diverse in nature and professions, engaged in social amenities awaiting a brief but poignant speech by BBBSA President/CEO Karen Mathis. The message was very clear; BBBS is back in PBC and National is here to support the expansion. The speech made abundantly clear that Palm Beach and Martin Counties presented great need, but also had the potential resources to address this opportunity. At this point, Ms. Mathis stated BBBSA is a volunteer organization that is donor supported; we are # 12 in Brand name, but have been #36 in developing funds – that is changing! With this message our new mantra was repeated –“Start Something”.

Karen’s comments and supporting evidence of the impact of one to one mentoring did not fall on deaf ears. The energy and passion coupled by Ms. Mathis capacity to recognize each participant’s ability to advance our expansion was wonderful. I believe everyone left the evening knowing that they each had the ability to change a young life in some positive manner.

This morning, Gary Vonk , President of Keiser University hosted a breakfast for the Executive Board of BBBS of PB & MC to meet with Karen in a one to one setting; this allowed each member some constructive face time with Ms. Mathis. The breakfast offered an hour plus of some lively discussion, education and philanthropy dynamics, as we all consider our board roles and expectations.

A 10:00 appointment with the State Attorney Michael McAuliffe facilitated by Sarah Alsofrom (Monday evening attendee and an incredible supporter of our Career Skills Program) allowed Ms. Mathis some insight to the business mentors in our Career Skills Mentoring Program. Karen immediately mentioned attorneys are great mentors; did I mention, Karen Mathis is an attorney and former President of the American Bar Association. We enjoyed an hour of State Attorney McAuliffe’s time in addition to members of his staff that have served as mentors in this program. Not a bad group to advocate on our opportunities to serve children. Thank you Michael, Sarah, Autumn and Lynn for what you do for our kids.

Closing out the trip, we met a group of individuals for lunch at the Ritz Carlton; an opportunity developed by Larry Stern (Chief of Staff for LaBovick Law). The hosts of the lunch were Cubby Steinhardt and Brian LaBovick. The additional participants at the lunch represented a cross section of professions and industry, but all had one thing in common: what can we do to improve the lives of children facing adversity or lacking opportunity. Karen immediately went to task and addressed a myriad of questions while keeping our mission, programs and statistical evidence underlying our outcomes at the forefront of the discussions. Karen emphasized the backlog of children already in our agency’s pipeline that can only be remedied through development of greater resources to support our initiatives.

One might now ask, what has been accomplished by Ms. Mathis visit to our community and the agency? The most basic response would be; opportunity, opportunity and opportunity! Ms. Mathis made it crystal clear; the need is obvious, but it is the resources developed that are presently required. BBBS of Palm Beach and Martin County is making major progress in all areas of measured performance as it expands their services into PBC, however, professionally supervised and supported one to one matches requires both time and treasure – and right now, its treasure.

What an awesome twenty hours of passion, energy, understanding and education for board, council members, businesses and volunteers; Thank you Karen Mathis and all the people that attended our opportunities.