By Mel Rubenstein

Contributing Writer

It all began in 1904 when a young New York City court clerk recognized that caring adults could help young boys stay out of trouble. That marked the beginning of the Big Brother movement. In 1977 this was joined by the Catholic Big Sisters organization, and more than 100 years later, Big Brothers / Big Sisters remains true to its founders’ vision of bringing caring role models into the lives of children.

Today, Big Brothers / Big Sisters currently operates in all 50 states and in 12 countries around the world. Since 1980, the Onondaga County chapter of Big Brothers / Big Sisters School Mentoring Program has arranged for thousands of life-changing friendships for children who are in need and/or want a mentoring relationship in their lives.

Oscar Vergara, Youth Services Director of Big Brothers/ Big Sisters says, “It is on behalf of the hundreds of children being served by these programs, that I offer a sincere, heartfelt ‘Thank You’ to all of our volunteer mentors.”

Vergara has enthusiastically endorsed one of those mentors, Nadine Wodarczyk, to be featured in this column as the Volunteer of the Month.

Nadine Wodarczyk was born in Manhattan, but as a young girl moved with her parents and siblings to Ridgewood, New Jersey where she attended high school. In 1981 she enrolled in Syracuse University where she majored in psychology. After graduating, Nadine worked in advertising as a media buyer, and then in human services. For the next 25 years she worked in various organizations helping people with developmental disabilities, and for the past 13 years for Arc of Onondaga where she is a Medicaid Service Coordinator. During that time Nadine and her husband Dave, had two children, Justin and Haley.

Wodarczyk said, “As the years passed, and my kids grew, I became an ‘empty nester’ and wanted to put my time to good use.” Nadine did just that when she heard that Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America was looking for mentors to help children as positive role models. Helping kids is what she wanted to do, so Nadine endured the very thorough background checks and application process, and provided many work and personal references to the organization.   

Wodarczyk happily committed to the minimum requirement of mentoring eight hours a month in the first year. She became even more enthused when she met her first client, seven-year-old Tissharria (Shar) Harper. Mrs. Harper looked to this program for another positive role model in the community for Shar to build a relationship with someone other than family. Mrs Harper feels that by having a positive relationship with someone other than family, when she gets older, she will have someone to talk to instead of turning to her peers. Nadine was specifically asked to encourage Shar in her school work, and to teach her that there are some rules along the way.

Nadine Wodarczyk has been Tissharria’s mentor for two years, and her progress as a nine-year-old has been very evident.

Nadine said, “At first I needed to build a sense of trust between us. I did that by spending every other Saturday with her and doing things she liked. We went to Silver Knights soccer games and SU basketball games. She loved ice skating and going to play at Chuck E. Cheese. We went swimming at the beach, and took in festivals and parades in downtown Syracuse. And, as an organization, Big Brothers/Big sisters put on Christmas parties and summer picnics for everyone in the program.

There were some specific things that Mrs. Harper asked Nadine to talk to her daughter about. One of those was that Shar was not getting along with one of her sisters. When the time was right, Nadine drew upon her educational background in psychology and explained to Shar how to avoid problems and build relationships. It must have worked, because Mrs. Harper never had to bring it up again. Nadine has also had a profound effect on Tissharria’s education. Not only has her school work improved, but this nine-year-old is now asking questions about college.

Wodarczyk said, “I give much credit to Mrs. Harper as a caring mother who made my job as a Big Sister to her daughter easier by developing a system of texting each other to set up times for my activities with Tissharria. She also welcomed me into her their home, and in turn, I welcomed them into mine. It’s become one big family.”

Although the Big Sister/Little Sister organization gives Wodarczyk much leeway with her involvement with Tissharria, they do keep tabs on things. She is required to send in a monthly report including hours spent with the client, and a description of what they did. There is also a quarterly telephone call with Wodarczyk, Mrs. Harper, Tissharria and a representative of the organization.

The mentoring program can go on until the client reaches 18 years of age, or younger if the family decides. From the way Nadine and Tissharria have hit it off, it looks like the mentoring program will go the distance, and the relationship between the families will continue on a personal basis afterwards.     

Wodarczyk said there are many young boys in the area who need mentoring too, and men are needed to fill that need in the Big Brothers/Little Brothers program. For information call Oscar Vergera at 470-3369 or e-mail to [email protected].

The Wodarczyk’s live in East Syracuse, and in addition to working and mentoring, Nadine enjoys yoga, hiking, reading and photography.

To recommend someone with a stellar record of volunteering to be featured in this column contact Mel Rubenstein: [email protected] or 682-7162.