ˮ����

Tucked in the Safety & Security Office, Molly Willis and Carol Brewer (ˮ����’s Director of Safety & Security) place tiny jewels in diamond art.

Calming activities like this are something they both enjoy and one of the reasons they were matched for Big Brothers Big Sisters. While they work on crafts, they catch up with each other and chat about what’s happening in their lives.

ˮ����’s had a collaboration with Big Brothers Big Sisters and Sauk Rapids-Rice High School for three years now, with several employees matched with students from SRRHS. They meet once a month and have the option to attend presentations about programs at ˮ����. Some matches attend the presentation; others will get lunch or will work on the puzzles in the library. Molly and Carol usually find a spot to craft. After attending a presentation involving a dissected cat, they decided they would do their own thing.  “Her face went white instantly, and I’m like, ummm, you wanna leave?” Carol said of the experience.

The pair have been a match for two-and-a-half years, and during that time, Molly has started PSEO at ˮ���� and decided to be a Big Sister to a boy in middle school. Since she had a Big while she was in middle school, she wanted to give back.

“Big Brothers Big Sisters gives you a lot of opportunities you otherwise wouldn't have had. You get to meet people and make friends with people from all types of backgrounds,” Molly shared. “When I first started Big Brothers Big Sisters, I was going through a lot, and I wasn't very confident. I was very shy, but it forced me to open up, in a good way, and talk to other people and interact with people. I’ve gotten a lot more confident and comfortable in all the things I do.”

While she may be shy, Molly’s got a lot going on in her life. In addition to being a Little and a Big, she volunteers at the hospital, is the secretary for the honor society at SRRHS, and is taking 19 credits as a PSEO student – and getting straight As.

With all Molly’s accomplished and her volunteering, Carol was happy to give a nomination for the Little Sister of the Year Award, which will be celebrated at The Big Celebration this month. The nomination included how the Little has grown individually or within the match, what challenges they’ve overcome, how they’re involved with the community, and more.

That’s not the only way Molly has been honored: last fall she was a St. Cloud Morning Optimist Club Youth Appreciation nominee, she’s currently a nominee for the Rosalie Timmer Scholarship at the hospital, and there are other scholarship opportunities on her horizon.

On top of that, Molly will graduate from ˮ���� a couple weeks before she graduates from SRRHS. She’ll have an AA that will transfer to the University of Minnesota-Rochester, where she’ll work on a bachelor’s degree in health sciences. After that, med school is in order with a track in adolescent psychiatry.

“I had my own struggles throughout my life with my mental health, and I’ve always known I wanted to help people” Molly noted. “As I got older, I knew I wanted to do something with mental health, and just in the past year, I realized I wanted to do emergency psychiatric care.”  

Carol was quick to point out that with Molly’s intended career path, her classes will likely involve dissecting something at some point. Smiling, Molly retorted that it was the cat that was the problem. She’s ready to dissect a fetal pig or a frog.

As far as plans for further in the future, she’s not sure what will come after she’s finished with med school. After all, she’s technically still in high school. But she knows that no matter where she ends up after her education, she’s going to be looking at finding a Big Brothers Big Sisters chapter to get involved and give back to the program that has lifted her up to where she is now.