Matching the big and little

When “Little” Marcel Vaughn was seven, he lived with his Aunt Tuji and two of his four sisters in Waynesboro. He had no significant male figure in his life. Not until he met Bill Kelley.

“We’ve been meeting now 10 years as of last April,” said Kelley, during a visit Monday afternoon with Vaughn at Ridgeview Park. Kelley, a former Spanish teacher, called himself Vaughn’s “Big.”

That’s the terminology used by people involved in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program and Kelley has been a big brother to Vaughn’s since he was a little boy.

“My son was a case manager with [BBBS] and he said he had a little fella that would be a great match for me,” Kelley said.

But Kelley was hesitant.

“What?!” said Vaughn. “You were hesitant about me?”

“Hold on, hold on, let me explain,” Kelley laughted and told Vaughn.

“As you can see, I’m pretty outspoken,” Vaughn chuckled.

“He’s always been very outspoken,” Kelley laughed.

The verbal sparring foreshadowed the friendly and challenging tone of the conversation to come.

“I was hesitant because my kids were already raised,” Kelley said. He wasn’t even a grandfather, yet.

Big Brothers Big Sisters is a donor supported program, said Becky Reid, director of programs for the BBBS of the Central Blue Ridge, with offices in Charlottesville and Waynesboro, but which covers Albemarle, Fluvanna and Nelson, Allegheny, Highland, Bath and Rockbridge counties; and the cities of Charlottesville, Waynesboro and Staunton.

In the last year alone, the organization has helped match 32 Littles to Bigs.

“In Charlottesville, it was double,” Reid said.

Currently, she said about 50 children are on a waiting list for their Big, in the Augusta, Waynesboro and Staunton areas alone.

“Donations fund our organization, which provides mentorship to children and takes care of screening mentors, training and supporting them, development and professional support of the matches,” Reid said. “We consistently have a wait list because through [word of mouth] people find out about the program and want their children involved.”

The role of a Big is a special one, Reid said, because they are not intended to be a babysitter, a therapist nor a stand in parent.

Reid said, “They are a caring adult friend.”

The minimum length of time requested for a match is one year, said Reid, making Vaughn and Kelley’s match atypical.

This might be because Vaughn isn’t the only one who has benefitted from the match.

Working with Vaughn over the years helped Kelley to be a grandfather to his three grandchildren.

“If I don’t say hello to them, they’re calling me, ‘Marcel-l-l,’” Vaughn said. “Especially Brandon. I’m like a celebrity.”

Brandon even recently went with his grandfather Bill and buddy Marcel to golf at Swannanoa, Kelley said.

“It was the first time either of them had been on a regulation golf course,” Kelley said beaming.

The grandfather even took the teen to Greenbriar, W.Va., to see an inaugural professional golf tournament with some big name players.

“Tiger wasn’t there playing, but we saw John Dailey,” Kelley said.

“Yeah, Bill pushed the kids out the way to get his way in to get an autograph,” Vaughn laughed.

“No I didn’t,” Kelley sheepishly blushed.

Though they now have a love of putting between them, what struck Kelley about the little boy was the type of person he was.

“When he was little my wife sent us to The Cheese Shop,” Kelley said. “At one point, I was like, ‘Where’s Marcel?’”

When Kelley searched for Vaughn, he found him at the front door to the store, greeting the people as they arrived.

“Over the past 10 years, he’s become more like a father figure to me,” Vaughn said.

As Vaughn’s mentor, Kelley has taken him to Virginia Beach for a weekend, had the teen over to swim in his backyard pool, gotten a bike for Vaughn when he turned 12, been to school parent teacher meetings when Vaughn’s aunt couldn’t, cheered the boy on when he went out for baseball and been to many movies together.

“Marcel’s a gracious winner,” said Kelley, “but that’s because he’s also a gracious loser.”

Movie favorites are the “Narnia” series, “Shrek,” and just recently they saw, “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” for which Vaughn prepped ahead of time, seeing the older movies with Charlton Heston.

“And the one with Mark Wahlberg,” Vaughn said.

There’s something else they really like to do together, they both said.

“We eat,” said Kelley.

“We love to eat,” said Vaughn.

“There isn’t a restaurant we haven’t been to yet,” Kelley said.

“We like to say,” said Vaughn, “The worst meal we ever had was great,” he and Kelley finished in unison.

But as it turned out, apparently the eating duo hasn’t been to the new Golden Corral or Gavid’s Steakhouse in Waynesboro yet.

They might need to hurry. At age 18, Vaughn will age out of the Big Brothers Big Sisters program.

But Big Bill and Little Marcel don’t plan to put an end to their relationship.

“We’ve decided we’re going to get together a lot,” said Kelley. “I would most definitely recommend the experience. Marcel’s an important part of my life because he’s a member of my family and I of his. We’ve had difficult times and great times. It’s been very meaningful.”

“Yeah, I’m going to drive him around town and he’ll pay,” Vaughn, who works at the Waynesboro Kroger, smiled.

“He already drives me crazy,” Kelley laughed