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Gradation 2019

Congratulations to our 2019 Graduating Littles

By Match Events

Each year, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa Bay celebrates our Littles who are graduating high school with a graduation ceremony

 

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa Bay has had an exciting time recently celebrating the high school graduation of Littles in our mentoring programs.

On May 1st, Leto High School had 17 students graduate from our School-to-Work program with Nielsen. The event featured the recently inducted mayor of Oldsmar, Eric Seidel, as the keynote speaker. Littles reminisced about the past year in the program, spoke about their experiences with School-to-Work that they will carry into the future, and awards were presented to those with perfect attendance. Nielsen also provided scholarships to two students, Jessica and Jonathan. Special thanks to Publix for donating a cake for the occasion.

View photos from the Leto and Nielsen graduation here.

On May 14th, we hosted our annual Graduation Ceremony for all graduating Littles, their Bigs and family members, at the Tampa Garden Club. Overall, we had 92 graduating seniors this year. Before the ceremony began, guests enjoyed the photo booth donated by Andrejka Photography. The evening started with a welcome from Jennifer Libby, VP of Programs, and Stephen Koch, President and CEO, followed by a delicious dinner catered by Lynn’s Catering. Bob Conigliaro from Caspers Company was the keynote speaker and shared some sage words of wisdom for the graduates. Gerry Goldhammer represented the BBBS Tampa Bay Scholarship Fund and presented scholarships to four deserving Littles, Delaney, Damion, Nate and Bennie. The Live for 24 Foundation, who raises funds in remembrance of former Big Melissa Vanderhall, presented their scholarship to Little ZaDerricka. Each graduate was honored and recognized with a certificate and special BBBS Tampa Bay branded pen. The evening closed with a presentation from Dallas Ruffin, who announced our newest program, Big Futures, which will help support Littles beyond graduation to help ensure they succeed and meet their future goals. Everyone enjoyed the cake donated by Winn-Dixie.

View photos from the graduation ceremony here.

On May 15th, Middleton High School had 20 students graduate from our School-to-Work program with Moffit Cancer Center. Moffit provided graduation caps and gowns for the Littles to help make the ceremony feel authentic. The program coordinator at Moffit, LaWanda Courtney, spoke about her heartfelt match story with her Little. We had three graduating Littles speak about their experience in the program and how their relationships with the Bigs and all they have learned will carry with them into their futures. Scholarships provided by Valley National Bank were presented to two Littles, Lydia and Francesca.

View photos from the Middleton and Moffit graduation here.

We are so proud of all our graduating Littles and know that they will all go on to do great things in the future. Congratulations to the graduating class of 2019!

Battle of the Bass Tournament

Inaugural Battle of the Bass Tournament

By Fundraising Events, Match Events

The inaugural Battle of the Bass fishing tournament, held on May 11th at the Guy Harvey Camp Mack Resort in Lake Wales, was a success by every measure. The anglers had a great day, weighing in some real lunkers. Eric Conant and Michael Foster won the Big Bass contest with an 8.5-pound hawg. Lamar Farrow and Richie Upchurt won the first-place $6,000 prize with a 5-fish weight of 28.54 pounds. Nearly 40 boats participated in the tournament, and the event raised $11,500 in support of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa Bay’s mentoring programs. While the fishermen were on the water, more than 30 of our Bigs & Littles got some one-on-one fishing tips from FLW Tour pro Darrell Davis, the event host and co-chairman. The day also included an exhibition from a police dog-in-training, a drawing for a free Power-Pole, and a lot of fun for everyone involved. Special thanks to the tournament co-chair Tammy Curtis and our sponsors, CenterState Bank, Tampa Bay Rays, and StevenDouglas.

View photos from the event here.

Watch the video slideshow here.

See the final Battle of the Bass Tournament Rankings.

School-to-Work Littles Headed to Nationals for FBLA

By Match Events, School-to-Work

Littles at Middleton High School placed 4th in the Florida state competition for their STEM fair

 

Littles in Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa Bay’s School-to-Work program from Middleton High School are heading to nationals for their Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) project.

Each year the FBLA must complete a community service project. Previously they lead service days at other local Tampa Bay agencies such as Metropolitan Ministries and Habitat for Humanity. This year, Middleton’s FBLA students chose to host a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fair in honor of Middleton’s STEM magnet program. Since some of the FBLA students participate in the School-to-Work program with BBBS Tampa Bay they chose to host the STEM fair for our matches in the Community-Based program.

“We wanted to share our knowledge and hopefully inspire others to join STEM, because of the amazing benefits it offers, and just hope to spark interest in general,” says Middleton student Nidhi.

The students coordinated each step of the planning for the STEM fair, from creating a flyer to planning the demonstrations. The STEM fair was hosted on February 2nd and the nineteen BBBS Tampa Bay matches who attended extracted DNA from strawberries, learned about what’s inside a computer, and had the opportunity to control a robot built by Middleton students.

Middleton took their STEM fair project to the Florida state competition, where they placed fourth. Their next stop is the national competition in San Antonio, Texas, from June 29th through July 2nd!

Check out more photos from the STEM fair here.

Annual Match Spring Picnic at Philippe Park

By Match Events

Each spring, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa Bay hosts a Match Spring Picnic for Bigs & Littles to spend time together in the great outdoors.

 

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa Bay hosted their annual Match Spring Picnic at Philippe Park in Safety Harbor. With almost 300 Bigs, Littles and staff in attendance, this was one of our biggest picnics yet!

Matches enjoyed arts and crafts, sports and games, music, dancing and a delicious lunch of hamburgers and hotdogs grilled by our own President & CEO, Stephen Koch, and his Little Jon.

Special thanks to Starbucks for donating coffee and iced tea for our matches to enjoy at the picnic and the Hobbs Foundation for making the annual Match Spring Picnic possible

View all of the photos from the Match Spring Picnic here and here.

Old Salt Fishing Clinic with BBBS

Old Salt Fishing Foundation Hosted Fishing Clinic

By Match Events

Matches at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa Bay enjoyed a day of fishing and fun in the sun.

 

Bigs and Littles from Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa Bay recently enjoyed a fishing clinic hosted by the Old Salt Fishing Foundation and the Rotary Club of the Gulf Beaches. Matches had the opportunity to learn more about casting a line and baiting a hook. Then they were able to fish on their own. A few were lucky enough to catch some small fish, but most matches just enjoyed spending the day together at ROC Park at Madeira Beach. Afterward, matches were invited to the Spring Break Festival & Carnival hosted annually by the Rotary Club of the Gulf Beaches. The organization donated free wrist bands for Littles who had attended the fishing clinic. Special thanks to Big Mitchell Shenkman for helping make this match event possible!

View photos from the event.

Matches Celebrated the Holidays at Annual Hillsborough Holiday Party

By Match Events

More than 100 matches celebrated the holiday season at United Skates.

 

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa Bay’s matches celebrated the upcoming holiday season at the annual Hillsborough Holiday Party hosted by United Skates in Tampa, FL. Over 100 matches were in attendance for this annual event. Matches not only enjoyed skating at the skating rink but also participated in games and arts & crafts. Littles were excited to have a special visit from the big man himself, Santa Clause! Santa gave each Little a gift card to buy a present with their Big. Bigs & Littles posed for pictures with Santa, snacked on cookies from Blondies Cookies, and all around had an awesome time!

Special thanks to United Skates Tampa, Blondie’s Cookies, and the Hobbs Foundation!

View the slideshow from the event here.

View photos from the event here.

Annual Lavonte David Bowl For Kids’ Sake Shows Support for Mentoring Programs

By Match Events

The annual bowling event hosted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker ignites potential in the children in Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa Bay’s youth mentoring program.

 

Tampa Bay Buccaneers player Lavonte David showed his support for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa Bay with his annual Lavonte David Bowl For Kids’ Sake match event. This yearly bash is a chance for BBBS Tampa Bay matches to enjoy pizza, soda, and bowling while getting to meet Bucs players. The Bucs linebacker was joined by Cameron Lynch, Donovan Smith, Devante Bond and other players who took the time to take photos with Bigs & Littles, autograph gear, and bowl a few frames with the kids.

During the event, David expressed his position as a defender of potential, seeing each of the Littles in BBBS Tampa Bay’s mentoring program as “Lavonte’s Legends”. David also announced the launch of his scholarship foundation that will help deserving kids pursue higher education. President & CEO of BBBS Tampa Bay, Stephen Koch, and Director of Activities and Training, Heather Castle, presented David with a custom framed jersey that featured the new Big Brothers Big Sisters logo as a token of appreciation for his support.

Lavonte David continues to be a champion for BBBS Tampa Bay’s mentoring programs and continues to defend potential in every child in our community.

Thank you to Fuzzy’s Taco Shop, PDQ, Dead Bob’s and Blondie’s Cookies for donating delicious food, Balloonies for the awesome balloon arch, Doogie Entertainment for providing the soundtrack for the evening, Image Depot Express and All Sports Custom Framing for creating a special gift for Lavonte David, and Pin Chasers for hosting the event!

See photos from the event here.

The Annual Big Celebration

By Match Events

Bigs & Littles from all seven counties attended this match event at the Museum of Science & Industry

 

Each year, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa Bay hosts the Big Celebration for our matches. This event is an opportunity for Bigs and Littles from across our seven counties to get together and enjoy food and fun with each other. This year we had over 200 matches in attendance and the event was a hit!

The celebration was an evening at the Museum of Science & Industry (MOSI) sponsored by Outback Steakhouse and TECO. Matches enjoyed all the exhibits that the museum had to offer, including a hurricane wind machine, a virtual reality ride, and a mock mission to the moon. Matches enjoyed tacos catered by Fuzzy’s Taco Shop and cookies from Blondie’s Cookies.

The Big Celebration is also a time for matches to catch up with their Match Support Specialists who help facilitate the relationship between Bigs and Littles.

Thank you to MOSI, Outback Steakhouse, TECO, Fuzzy’s Taco Shop, and Blondie’s Cookies for empowering potential in our Littles.

Join us as a defender of potential » https://bbbstampabay.org/be-a-big/ 

Congratulations to the Graduating Class of 2018!

By Match Events

We celebrated our Littles that are graduating from high school with a ceremony at Sunken Gardens.

 

Bigs, Littles & their families celebrated the graduating class of 2018 this past week with a very special graduation ceremony at Sunken Gardens in St. Petersburg, FL. This year, we had 85 Littles in our program who were graduating from high school with over 40 of the Littles in attendance at the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa Bay ceremony. Along with their Bigs and family, the event was a packed house with over 150 people there to show their support for our graduates.

The evening kicked off with a delicious spread of pasta, salad, and bread from Carrabba’s Italian Grill. As guests nibbled on their dinners, our guest speaker Bob Conigliaro of Caspers Corporation gave out words of wisdom for our graduates, reminding them that hard work and a positive attitude will lead to success. His words were so inspiring that many Bigs and family members said that they were also moved by his speech.

After the special guest speaker, Scholarship Committee member, Gerry Goldhammer, and our own Senior Vice President of Programs, Jennifer Libby, presented awards to the two Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa Bay scholarship winners, Timia Fonville (Boca Ciega High School) and Kiara Stevens (Boca Ciega High School). Then our School-to-Work Coordinator, Dallas Ruffin, recognized our School-to-Work Scholarship winners who received their awards at our School-to-Work graduations earlier this month. Yonjer Suarez (A. P. Leto High School), Dalila Maceda (A. P. Leto High School), Sky Kinzinger (Clearwater High School), Jordan Curtiss (Clearwater High School), Tristan Trombley (Northeast High School), and Emily DaSilva (Northeast High School) were all recognized for their outstanding work and for being chosen as our School-to-Work scholarship recipients. Jennifer Libby also took the time to recognize Alexander Marcano (Clearwater High School), who was chosen to be one of only 20 Minor League Baseball Rising Star Students. Alexander was recognized at the Clearwater Thresher’s game on June 1st where he had the opportunity to throw the first pitch and was also awarded a scholarship.

Each graduate was called to the podium to be recognized for their achievements and receive a certificate from Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa Bay for graduating from high school and from our mentoring programs. They were each awarded a monogrammed pen and pencil set with the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa Bay logo, a token of remembrance for the special time spent with their Big Brothers and Big Sisters.

A special thank you to Caspers Corporation for sponsoring the event for the third year, Carrabba’s Italian Grill at Sunken Gardens for their generous dinner donation, and Winn-Dixie South Tampa for the beautiful cake.

View the photo album from the evening here.

We Celebrated the Graduating Class of 2018 with our School-to-Work Program

By Match Events, School-to-Work

Seniors with our School-to-Work mentoring program enjoyed graduation ceremonies as they leave Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa Bay to pursue their futures.

 

This week, we celebrated the graduating class of 2018 with graduation ceremonies for the 45 Littles in our School-to-Work mentoring programs. The School-to-Work program is a three-way partnership between the local school districts, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa Bay and our corporate and community partners to provide one-on-one mentoring in the workplace for high school juniors and seniors to help improve graduation rates. The students (Littles) visit the workplace of the employees (Bigs) one morning each month during the school year for about four hours. They spend the first hour learning post-graduation skills, then spend one-on-one time with their corporate Bigs through lunch before returning to school.

Littles from our school partners — Northeast High, Clearwater High, and Leto High — met with their Bigs at USAmeriBank, St. Pete-Clearwater Airport, and Nielsen for their final visits of the school year to celebrate their growth and success in our School-to-Work program. At each graduation ceremony, keynote speakers such as the Mayor of Oldsmar, Doug Bevis, and Pinellas County Administrator, Mark S. Woodard, were invited to talk to the Littles about their futures, inspiring the students with words of wisdom and well-wishes. At each graduation, two graduating seniors were awarded scholarships based on essays they had written about their futures and how the School-to-Work program has positively impacted their lives.

The graduations were full of joy and excitement as the Bigs & Littles looked back over the past two years in the School-to-Work program. The seniors who will be leaving the program were enthusiastic about their futures, many attending college and hoping to one day fulfill their career paths. Some of the seniors even hope to return to their School-to-Work sites to work after they finish school.

Best of luck to the graduating class of the 2018 School-to-Work program!

 

View the photo album for the Northeast High & USAmeriBank graduation ceremony here.

View the photo album for the Clearwater High & St.Pete-Clearwater Airport graduation ceremony here.

View the photo album for the Leto High & Nielsen graduation ceremony here.

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