Doorways Event with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County

Big Brothers Big Sisters, Panda Express, Knotts & Oakley
Team Up to Increase Awareness of Need for Mentors

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County joined with Panda Express, Knotts Berry Farm and Oakley to increase awareness about the great need for mentors in Orange County through its inaugural Doorways event at Knotts Berry Farm, Buena Park on September 27. Dozens of business and community leaders served as Big Brothers or Big Sisters for a Day and were matched one-to-one with children waiting to be matched to mentors. Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County Board Chairman Peter Desforges participated as a Big for a Day, as did Panda Express CEO Tom Davin and Panda Express executives Larry Behm and Bob Lustig, Knotts Berry Farm VP and General Manager Marty Keithley and Oakley SVP of Global Marketing Scott Bowers . The event began with a kick-off ceremony hosted by Ed Arnold of KOCEs Real Orange. State Senator Lou Correa and Assistant City Manager of Buena Park Jim Vanderpool joined the ceremony and spoke about the great need for mentors in the lives of the many children in Orange County that Big Brothers Big Sisters hopes to reach.
Additionally, Big Brothers Big Sister matches distributed information at 32 Panda Express restaurant locations throughout Orange County as well as at Oakleys headquarters in Foothill Ranch. We are proud to partner with proactive, community-minded companies like Panda Express, Oakley, and Knotts Berry Farm to serve more children in our community. We appreciate their support and their efforts to increase awareness about the impact of mentoring in their own companies, as we strive to increase awareness and recruit more mentors in our community, Big Brothers Big Sisters CEO Gus Valdespino noted.




Volunteers Needed A Big Brother or Big Sister acts as a friend and mentor in the life of a child in need, or Little Brother or Little Sister, ages 6-16. Orange County still has a need for additional mentors, as there are 110,000 single parent households, a quarter of which are living in poverty. There are also over 200 children waiting to be matched. Additional Littles are welcome as well. For information visit www.bigbrooc.org.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Big
• Brothers
• Sisters
• orange
• county
• knott's
• berry
• farm
• panda
• express
• oakley
• big
• for
• day
• nonprofit
• mentoring
• youth