What a year 2024 has been! We kicked off our 75th year of service at our 25th annual Big Night celebration featuring historical nods to our seven decades of supporting and growing our Big-Little youth mentoring community. Program launches, expansion into new territories outside of Boston, awards, new members of the team and more mentoring matches followed, making the agency’s diamond anniversary one of our BIGGEST years of impact to date. Below is a seasonal news highlight reel.

Winter

In January for National Mentoring Month, we heard directly from our matches about the value of mentoring and the impact mentoring relationships have on youth, their families and the adults who volunteer as their mentors. The consensus is both Bigs and Littles benefit from these lasting relationships in more ways than one. And, Boston Magazine highlighted Big Night as one of the events of the season raising more than $2.3 million to support our year-round one-to-one youth mentoring programs. Hear more from Kevin and Trevyon who spoke with NBC Boston during one of their outings to the New England Aquarium and our president & CEO, Mark O’Donnell, who sat down with Bay State Banner to reflect on the agency’s 75 years of service.

Spring

School-based programs were top of mind this spring. We launched Big Futures Mentoring in Quincy High School helping to expand our programming for high school students as featured in Quincy Patch. We also celebrated graduates of our Mass Maritime Academy program covered by the Bourne Enterprise. And, our Boston Marathon runners and Golf Classic participants collectively raised more than $1 million. More on how our 49th annual charity golf tournament went in MassNonprofit News.

Summer

July started with our president and CEO honored on field by the New England Revolution as the Hero of the Match, joining a roster of local first responders, members of the armed forces and individuals making a difference in the community celebrated by the team during home games. Check out photos from the day in Boston Patch. This season marked one of expansion as the agency continued to expand into gateway cities to meet the needs of families moving outside of Boston as chronicled in The Boston Globe. A huge shoutout to our Falmouth Road Race winners who hit the pavement for the cause in August!

Fall

With the start of a new academic year, came new team members and opportunities to engage Littles and their families. We welcomed a new regional for our South Coast programs, Rebecca Kerner, who was recently featured in the New Bedford Light. We also celebrated the 50th anniversary of our programs on Cape Cod and the Islands and the launch of a Portuguese speaking pilot program as shared by regional manager JR Mell in The Vineyard Gazette and The Martha’s Vineyard Times. We rung in the holidays with Bigs and Littles during a special match shopping event at Macy’s and our annual holiday match party at Boston University. A special thank you to one of our volunteer mentors Kristen Erekson who is running a donation challenge in which she’ll match up to $19,000 in contributions through the end of this year. The launch of her campaign was featured in The Somerville Times.

As we think about the next 75 years, one thing we know will stay consistent is our dedication to our Big-Little community. We thank you so much for your continue participation in and support of our programs. Here’s to another BIG year in 2025!