Cole and Ben's Video Story

Little Brother, Ben comes from a two-parent household, but Ben’s dad had been ill for a long time. Ben had an additional father figure in his grandpa, but then his grandpa passed away.  This was a very tough loss for Ben to cope with.  Ben’s mom enrolled him in the BBBS program, but they had to wait for nearly a year to find a match for Ben. Along came Cole, who heard about Big Brothers Big Sisters at a workplace volunteer presentation.

 Cole is a robotics engineer at Genesis Systems in Davenport.  He went through the volunteer enrollment process and after filling in a questionnaire and being interviewed at BBBS, the BBBS enrollment specialist went to work to find the perfect Little for Cole and the perfect Big for Ben. Wah-lah! As Ben’s mom says, “a Match made in heaven!” 

Ben has a very high aptitude for math and science and wanted to explore a career in robotics.  Cole was a robotics engineer.  On their first meeting together Cole brought Ben to his workplace and gave him a tour of Genesis Systems, where robots are manufactured.  They got to do some basic programming and later on encouraged Ben to join the Robotics Team at his school.  

Ben and Cole also worked together on a surprise for Ben’s mom.  Over several planned meetings they created and worked to complete the last piece to a wooden lawn ornament set that Ben’s grandpa had started making and never finished.  They completed it just in time to give to Ben’s mom on Mother’s Day.  She was extremely touched that her son and his Big worked together to give her such a meaningful gift.