Five OU public relations seniors promote Big Brothers Big Sisters Bowl for Kids’ Sake 2010.

As part of their public relations capstone project, a group of students known as “The Flex Group” have designed a “Strike it Rich” campaign to create awareness about the upcoming “OU only” Bowl for Kids’ Sake night on March 25 at the Sooner Bowling Center.

Public relations senior Christa Stewart, a member of The Flex Group, said Cleveland County’s Big Brothers Big Sisters did not receive adequate funds from United Way this year. She said the organization is heavily relying on Bowl For Kids’ Sake nights to raise money to support child-mentor matches.

“This one is specifically for the OU community,” Stewart said. “Anyone associated with the university can come out and join the cause. The Big Brothers Big Sisters vision is to create successful mentoring relationships with any child who needs to be matched.”

Big Brother Big Sister’s primary goal this year is to match 700 at-risk children. The organization now has around 500-600 matches. She said that the other goal is to match more children with incarcerated parents.

“Mentors serve the community by helping children keep out of jail,” Stewart said. “Sometimes it’s just one parent, sometimes it’s both. They really need those positive influences in their lives.”

Diane Murphee, area director for Cleveland County’s Big Brothers Big Sisters, said the organization took a $20,000 budget cut when United Way was unable to reach its own financial goals to provide for agencies like Big Brother Big Sisters.

“It creates a gap where we’re not able to match as many kids as possible because of lack of funds,” Murphee said.

Murphee said the organization had to lay off many of its own staff. She said it has caused the workers, called max personnel, who screen potential mentors and oversee matched relationships, to be literally maxed out. Murphee said they have four max personnel who take care of a 100 matches each and make 300 phone calls to teachers, parents, mentors and anyone else associated with each child every month.

“We could’ve easily matched 700 matches last year, but we didn’t have the staff,” Murphee said. “We won’t be satisfied until we’re matching 1,000 matches a year.”

Stewart said to make the “Strike it Rich” campaign as successful as possible, The Flex Group is looking for support from black and Hispanic student organizations on campus to accomplish another Big Brothers Big Sisters goal.

“They are looking to bring in more males, and more African-American and Hispanic mentors,” Christa said. “It has plenty of volunteers. However, the majority are female.”

Stewart said there will be an afterparty when the “OU only” Bowl for Kids’ Sake night is finished. The afterparty will be open to those who were not able to register a bowling team for the event. She said the event will give students the opportunity to interact with people involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Mary Martha Stewart, the president of OU Parents’ Association, said she is proud of her daughter and The Flex Group. She said that although it’s not sanctioned by the OU Parents’ Association, there are parents who are involved in fundraising and creating bowling teams for the Big Brothers Big Sisters’s cause.

“We do support events where parents, faculty members and students can come together and get involved,” Mary Martha said.

According to a “Bowl For Kids’ Sake” press release, The Flex Group’s members are Ryan DeGiacomo, Courtney Knutson, IBK Segun, Chelsea Smith and Christa Stewart. Knutson said the group has been working hard on its public relations project by contacting media, working on designs for flyers and e-cards and hosting meetings.

“There’s always challenges,” Knutson said. “We all have other things going on in our lives. We’re trying to balance our time. It’s hard being focused on the project all the time, but the group is awesome.”

Knutson said stress becomes a big factor when trying to balance working on the project and having time for other things. She said the stress also comes from being a senior and getting preparations ready to graduate in May. However, she said the project has been fun despite the challenges it has brought.

“Because of all the hard work we’ve been putting in, we hope to see results,” Knutson said. “We’re all kind of crossing our fingers that everything will work out.”