BANGOR – As more and more nonprofit causes grow worthy of local participation and support, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Maine happily embraces several new friendships, both in the community and corporate sphere.

Last fall, MBNA in Orono selected Big Brothers Big Sisters as one of five charities to partner with in 2006. Michael Labun, operations manager at the Orono facility, offered to provide “people power” to the organization. Labun invited Big Brothers Big Sisters to engage the staff for recruitment and the annual Bowl-for-Kids Sake fundraiser in January. MBNA employees warmly welcomed Big Brothers Big Sisters into their workplace during one of the morning and evening shifts.

Labun, who enthusiastically encourages MBNA’s core value of community service, strongly supported the Big Brothers Big Sisters mission as they addressed the facility.

“You may think that you don’t have time to volunteer,” Labun said to his employees. “But once you do, you will realize that no one who volunteers ‘has’ the time. They just ‘make’ the time.”

Big Brothers Big Sisters struggles to recruit Big Brothers; more than 85 percent of the kids on the Big Brothers Big Sisters waiting list for Penobscot County are boys. So, Labun conveyed a special message to his male employees. “I am calling on all the guys here to stand up and become a Big Brother,” he said. “There are so many young boys right here who live in a single parent home with a mom who is trying to be both a mom and a dad. They are in real need of a good male role model.”

Another friend of Big Brothers Big Sisters, EZ To Use Big Book, gave a large gift to the organization in the Hancock County area in December. Ralph Rumill, directory coordinator, donated tickets to the benefit Harlem Rockets basketball game at Ellsworth High School. More than 85 area children, their ‘Bigs,’ and family members enjoyed laughter, dancing and fun during the game. The event was co-sponsored by the Ellsworth Area Chamber of Commerce and the Ellsworth High School scholarship committee.

A new corporate partner is Office Depot on Stillwater Avenue. The store wanted to make its start in the area with a contribution to a local organization that worked with at-risk youth. Office Depot chose Big Brothers Big Sisters and donated 80 backpacks with school supplies to the ‘Littles.’

Office Depot became interested in signing on as a corporate partner to the agency. They invited Big Brothers Big Sisters to their grand opening ribbon-cutting ceremony, presenting the agency with two shopping carts loaded with backpacks.

Big Brothers Big Sisters also is expanding its services into other local human service organizations like Spruce Run, a domestic violence center in Bangor.

Spruce Run received a three-year grant this fall from the Department of Justice’s Children of Domestic Violence division. Part of the project is the creation of a small mentoring program for the children in their transitional housing unit. Spruce Run decided to partner with Big Brothers Big Sisters to coordinate the new mentoring program.

The grant will fund five matches, over the three years, at one of Spruce Run’s on-site locations. Big Brothers Big Sisters hopes to recruit mentors from Husson College, with which they already have strong ties. Spruce Run and Big Brothers Big Sisters will work together to screen and train participants.

Worth Magazine, a finance and investment periodical, conducted a six-month study in 2001 to help determine which charities were most effective and considered “essential for maintaining a caring society.” Big Brothers Big Sisters was named among the top 100 U.S. charities, and one of the top 30 human services charities.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Maine is a member agency of the United Way of Eastern Maine and an affiliate of Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America. For more information, call (800) 492-5550.