UW Student, Employee Named Wyoming’s Bigs of the Year

The University of Wyoming will be continuing a national tradition started in Laramie in 1971.

According to a UW release, this year's Wyoming State Big Brother is Michael McNamee, a UW Admissions Representative and graduate student in public administration, environment, and natural resources. The State's Big Sister is Stacie Faxon of Laramie, a University of Wyoming junior majoring in elementary education in English.

According to the UW release, Big Brothers Big Sisters is a leadership program that pairs kids with adults to help build friendships with one another for a mutual benefit. Volunteers meet their "Littles" for a few hours once a week depending on their schedules and spend time doing various activities together.

Faxon was paired up with her Little Sister, Teagan, for three years. Faxon said Teagan was shy at first, but later opened up when they discovered they both like banana splits, doing arts and crafts, and bike riding.

Teagan's mom noted, “This match has grown into a mutual relationship of taking and giving. They can even just sit and talk, and be happy with the time they spend together.”

McNamee has been paired up with his Little Brother, David, for six years. According to NcNamee, for both of them who enjoy so many different sports together their friendship grew very effectively from the beginning. McNamee also says he has been helping David apply himself more and appreciate school more than he did before they met. McNamee says he has also taken David onto the UW campus and showed him how fun and important college can be in your life.

According to the UW release, Big Brothers Big Sisters is a national wide program that has existed for over a 100 years now. The program is set to mentor kids from the ages of 5 years old all the way through to their high school graduation.

For more information, visit www.wyobbbs.org or call (307) 742-2227.