Crystal Gonzalez, 18, and Carlyn, 10, can't stop chatting and giggling. The "Big Sister" and "Little Sister" are sitting at a yellow picnic table in the covered patio at Evelyn Thurman Gratts Elementary School near downtown Los Angeles on this late Tuesday afternoon.

"I've never done anything like this; it's been a new experience working with young kids," Crystal, a senior at nearby Belmont High School, tells a campus visitor. "It's been fun. She's fun. She's in the math club and into many other things we talk about."

"Yeah, I like having a big sister," says fifth-grader Carlyn, glancing at her new older friend and mentor for the last five months. "We talk about school. She helps me with math. Math and writing are my favorite subjects. I like to write stories, essays."

When Crystal is asked why she gives up at least one afternoon a week to play with and tutor Carlyn, she has a ready reply.

"I volunteer because some kids need --- how do you say --- advice from another person," declares the teenager, who wants to be either a nurse or probation officer. "A lot of kids don't get to talk to their parents, so they need help. So I wanted to help somebody. Nobody did that for me, but I want to do it for somebody else --- help them out."

The high school senior and fifth grade student are part of the fastest growing program offered by Catholic Big Brothers Big Sisters (CBBBS) of Los Angeles (which is celebrating its 80th anniversary Sept. 30 with a reception, silent and live auction, and dinner at L.A.'s Jonathan Club). Dubbed "High School Bigs," the program matches a secondary student with a younger one for a year. Through after-school get-togethers (at least weekly), the teen becomes the child's special friend and role model.

400 to 450 matches
"Bigs" evolved from the traditional Big Brothers Big Sisters program that matches an adult with a boy or girl often from a single-parent family. CBBBS in Los Angeles, which is one of only a few remaining Catholic-sponsored Big Brothers Big Sisters programs left in the entire U.S., produces about 300 matches a year. But the school-based program (that began in 1996) and other on-site local programs match between 400 to 450 mentors with children annually, and is increasing every year.

"We've found over the years that it's too hard to get adult mentors, especially male mentors," reports Ken Martinet, president and CEO of CBBBS. "So we evaluated other ways of delivering the mentoring, by using high school students, for instance. That's our fastest growing program at the moment.

"We choose to be at schools that are underperforming and in low-economic areas. We're at schools that aren't doing well, but they're doing better because we're there."

Since 1925, according to Martinet, CBBBS has served some 100,000 boys and girls of all faiths through about 8,000 mentors. Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters in Los Angeles is older by some 10 years. Both are part of the 450 affiliates across the nation.

Locally, says Martinet, the volunteer organization has "changed a lot" during eight decades of quiet, and often unnoticed, continual community service. It's managed to keep up with the times through a broad spectrum of programs.

Besides the core one-to-one mentoring and High School Bigs, the Deaf/Hard of Hearing program matches deaf or hard of hearing youth with adults having similar physical problems or who are fluent in American Sign Language. Mentoring Children of Promise is a program for children of prisoners. And the Northwest Pasadena Mentoring Center offers after-school mentoring and teaching to children from mostly lower-income Spanish-speaking families.

But one thing has stayed the same.

"Our mission just in general for all these years is to try to help kids who need good role modeling in their lives get together with volunteers who have been trained and oriented to the program, and who provide a healthy experience for kids," Martinet points out.

"But I think one of the differences between the normal training volunteers might go through and what we do is that we're constantly in contact with the mentors," notes the 65-year-old administrator. "Our case managers are always doing orientation with them and follow up -at least monthly in the early part of the match, and often more than that. All of our volunteers are supervised by social workers, plus all of their cases are managed by case managers."

'A wider world'
What he hopes this professionally monitored dynamic will produce is that urban kids from poor and often broken homes will be exposed to a wider world of experiences and possibilities, from simply going to the beach for the first time to realizing that going to college can actually happen if you work hard.

"So the mentors will expose them to areas of life that really expands their thinking and their hopes and their futures," Martinet explains. "But statistically we also know that mentoring helps the kid stay out of trouble, become less violent, develop better relationships, perform academically better."

The first two students that Eric Hernadez, a Belmont High counselor and social worker, sent to High School Bigs a couple years ago were shy and withdrawn. But after working with elementary school kids, both came out of their shells and, eventually, became leaders of the program.

"It gives them a great sense of responsibility and a place where they can help out in the community," he says. "A lot of the kids who actually come back and do some of the mentoring program have been students here at Gratts, and now they give back. Plus, it keeps them off the streets, and they're really doing something very positive. It builds their confidence, and they know they become role models for the younger kids."

For elementary school students, Hernadez believes just being around older kids introduces them to what high school is like and what they have to look forward to if they stay in school. He's convinced mentoring lowers the dropout rate.

"It's a beneficial relationship both ways," he stresses.

Giovani Chavez, a 17-year-old junior at Belmont, and Javier, a 10-year-old fourth-grader at Gratts, couldn't agree more.

"I like it very much," says mentor Giovani. "I like the whole experience of helping kids with their homework. I tell him how to do things in math and other subjects. And I like to help him in sports. I have one Little Brother, but sometimes I also help his friends."

Standing nearby, Javier smiles and nods. "We play when it's snack time," he says. "And then we go to the classroom and he helps me with my homework. It's better now, and maybe I'll get better marks."