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Bettendorf

‘Light the Town Green’ to support Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Mississippi Valley

By Sharon Wren,

16 hours ago

https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=4HuGd3_1FCsO4kI00

Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Mississippi Valley (BBBSMV) invites businesses, homes and community members in the Quads Cities to “Light the Town Green” on Saturday, September 26 and Sunday, September 27, to celebrate Big Brothers Big Sisters Month.

Businesses and homeowners throughout the Quad Cities are asked to turn on green lights or display green decor on September 26 and 27 as a show of community support. The I-74 bridge will be lit green for the occasion.

BBBSMV staff, board members, volunteers, Bigs & Littles matches, families and community supporters will gather on Sunday, September 27 at 6:45 p.m. on the Bettendorf side of the river at 15th Street Landing for a community walk across the green-lit I-74 bridge. The event will end with a group photo of all in attendance and is expected to last about an hour. Participants are encouraged to wear green.

Nationwide, one in three young people grow up without a positive, sustained adult mentor in their life, according to Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. Research on BBBS mentoring shows the impact of closing that gap: mentored youth are 55% more likely to enroll in college, 54% less likely to have been arrested and 41% less likely to engage in substance use than their peers without a mentor.

BBBSMV currently has over 150 children on its waiting list for a mentor across its 17-county service area in eastern Iowa and western Illinois. Boys wait significantly longer than girls. About 70% of the children BBBSMV serves are growing up in poverty and about 69% are raised by a single parent or non-parent relative.

"Our region has hundreds of kids waiting right now for a caring adult to walk alongside them, and the research is clear that a mentor can change the entire trajectory of a young person's life,” said Daniel Gleason, President/CEO of BBBSMV. “Walk on 74 for Mentoring is our way of asking the whole Quad Cities community, businesses and neighbors alike, to help us close that gap. When this community lights up green and walks with us, we're showing every Little on our waiting list that they matter to this community, and that a mentor is worth the wait."

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