Mike Thom and Wyatt Maxted meet up most weeks and hang out together.
“I feel like I have a third dad, cause I’ve got a birth dad, a step-dad, and Mike,” says 8-year-old Wyatt.
The Big Brothers Big Sisters programme pairs adult mentors with children in need of a positive role model. The mentors then meet up with the children at least once a week and simply hang out together, building a relationship.
“We both like going to the beach… we both like reading,” Wyatt says. “We fished once, we loved that…. I got twelve fish!”
“He caught more than I caught,” Mike conceded good-naturedly.
Chelsea Routhan, programme director of the Nelson-Tasman Big Brothers Big Sisters team says that children who receive the mentoring often exhibit “greater confidence… and form better relationships with others.”
Wyatt’s mother Jessica has noted this in Wyatt as well, even though he’s only been getting together with Mike for three months.
“It felt like [Wyatt] needed a good male-mentoring role model,” Jessica says, mentioning that he’d had some emerging anger issues. But after spending some time with Mike each week, she noted that Wyatt’s already more confident and outgoing and less reserved than he once was.
However, as beneficial as this programme seems to be for Wyatt and many other young boys, there is a severe shortage of male mentors. It took over two years for Wyatt to be paired with Mike.
Currently, Big Brothers Big Sisters have a waiting list of 54 children who needed mentors, with most of them being boys.
This lack of male mentors has led to the creation of a 22 Men for 2022 campaign.
“That dependability of doing something with someone once a week and making sure that you’re doing something for someone else’s interests completely is just really helpful holistically,” Mike said.
Visit www.bigbrothersbigsisters.org.nz, or call 03 545 9864.
By Max Frethey
