Two Seniors Hailed for Volunteer Efforts

April 22, 2011

94760 April 22, 2011, Greencastle, Ind. — Two DePauw University seniors who volunteer with Big Brothers Big Sisters of South Central Indiana -- Patrick Legendre and Alexandra Walker -- have been honored by the agency as "Bigs of the Year." They are among a total of five individuals to receive the award for their efforts.

Legendre, a performance/business major in the DePauw School of Music and Bonner Scholar, is Big Brother to Logan, a student at Cloverdale Elementary School. Big Brothers Big Sisters staff say Patrick has been "a consistent friend and mentor" to Logan, who describes his older friend as "really cool, nice and fun." The pair enjoy playing basketball and games as well as working on homework and puzzles.

Since 2008 Legendre has also worked to recruit other DePauw students to serve as Bigs, has organized annual parties for Little Brothers and Little Sisters on campus, and put together an annual fundraising event at DePauw. This year's fundraiser, Starting Line for Littles, was held April 8, and raised over $1,000 to support children in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program.

94759 Ally Walker is a sociology/anthropology major and history minor. She became a Big Sister during her freshman year at DePauw in October 2007, when she was matched with Trinity, then a second grader at Cloverdale Elementary. "In the four years in which they've regularly visited together, Trinity has transformed from a shy second grader who wasn't engaged in the classroom into an academically and socially confident fifth grader," notes the agency. The young women take walks, play games, and do homework together, and Walker has served as a classroom volunteer, helping with small group activities and class projects. According to Trinity, Ally is "fun, nice, smart, creative, caring, and helpful."