Man’s Little Brother Is a Keeper

It’s hard to catch up with Doug and Josh. They’re busy taking in the Dodgers vs. the Reds at Chavez Ravine, hiking in the Santa Monica Mountains, shooting baskets in a game of 21 in the San Fernando Valley or sometimes train-hopping downtown on the Metro. Doug and Josh are just busy being brothers.

The two have been a Jewish Big Brother/Little Brother match since the spring of 1998, about six months after 51-year-old Doug Braun sent his youngest son, Devon, off to the University of Arizona.

Just how long have they been hanging out?

“Two years, one month and 15 days exactly,” said 10-year-old Josh.

Josh savors each moment.

The energetic and outgoing only child has never known his father. After he started acting out in school, his mother called and was interviewed by social workers with the Jewish Big Brother/Little Brother program. She hoped to find Josh a male role model.

The organization matched Josh up with Braun, who had also contacted them wanting to volunteer. “I wanted whatever kid needed me the most,” Braun said. “I wanted to give a kid the same opportunity that Devon had.”

There are four Los Angeles area Big Brothers/Big Sisters agencies: Jewish Big Brothers, Catholic Big Brothers, Big Brothers of Greater L.A. and Big Sisters of L.A. Currently, there are about 2,000 children and teenagers ranging in age from 6 to 18 matched with adult mentors.

“It gives me a buddy to hang around with,” said Braun, an executive for a Simi Valley toy company that supplies plush animals and mascots to universities across the country. “It’s fulfilled my need to have another son.”

Most adult volunteers in Big Brothers and Big Sisters are young and unmarried with extra time on their hands. But organizers say there is a trend toward older mentors--like Braun--who are parlaying years of successful parenting into helping another child in need.

On a recent afternoon, Braun picked up Josh and the two played a fast and furious game of 21 at the Agoura Hills Calabasas Community Center. (Josh won, 21-16.) Afterward, they ate at McDonald’s and then went to Braun’s Agoura Hills home to watch the Lakers lose to the Portland Trail Blazers in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals.

Sports is a bond between the two and one of the reasons organizers paired them up. “His mother says I calm him down,” Braun said in between basketball shots. “I think I hype him up. . . . We get along so well. Some people even think we look alike.”

Braun puts in more than the 8 to 16 hours a month required of volunteers by the national Big Brothers/Big Sisters organization. He sees Josh at least twice a month on their longer outings, but he wishes it could be more.

“Our time together just goes so fast,” he said. “It’s worth the world to see his eyes light up.”

They’ve eaten Mexican food at downtown’s Grand Central Market, attended a grand opening party at the Staples Center and even played hooky from school and work to go snowboarding.

Their outings are designed to help the once tentative Josh get exposure to new experiences. “He now sees the world in a different way,” Braun said.

The relationship has helped Josh in school too. “His mother told me his last report card was his best ever,” Braun said.

Do they do homework together? “Naw!” they say in unison, although Braun said he and Josh sometimes play math games en route to an outing or destination.

There are approximately 800 to 1,000 kids like Josh currently waiting to be matched through the area’s four Big Brother or Sister programs, according to Marvin Savlov, executive vice president of Jewish Big Brothers Assn.

“That’s way too many,” he said. “It’s easy to volunteer. Just get off the couch.”

All of the “littles”--as the kids are called--come from a single-parent household and represent a wide range of social, racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds. Volunteer mentors are extensively interviewed and their backgrounds scrutinized, including checking criminal and Department of Motor Vehicle records. Organizers ask for at least a year’s commitment, but most of all consistency.

In many cases, the relationship becomes lifelong and life-altering for both adult and youth.

“A lot of kids come back later and tell us if not for their Big Brother they don’t know where they would have ended up,” Savlov said.

The brotherly companionship between Josh and Braun is obvious. They often high-five, like to tease each other and even have a secret saying: “Turn it on,” meaning to think something through and not give up.

Braun hopes to always be part of his “little’s” life--even one day when Josh grows up and hopefully heads off to his first-choice school: the University of Michigan.

“He’s an incredible little kid,” Braun said.

For more information on Jewish, Catholic, Big Brothers of Greater L.A. or Big Sisters of L.A., call (800) 453-KIDS.

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