Big Brothers Big Sisters of Colorado is proud to have partnered with Ent Credit Union for over 10 years to address the diverse needs of youth in Denver and Colorado Springs. BBBSC has been a recipient of Ent’s Youth Endowment Series (YES) grants numerous times, which are reviewed by an Ent employee panel with funding recommendations based on the purpose of the grant and the projected benefit to the community, among other criteria. Ent has provided over $75,000 in funding support to BBBSC over the years, but overall Ent’s YES Grants program has awarded more than $1.1 million in grants to more than 155 Colorado nonprofits that serve the diverse health, human services and other needs of children since its inception in 2000.
Most recently, BBBSC was selected as the recipient for Ent’s two-month fundraising campaign in the Pikes Peak region over the summer of 2018. During the campaign, employees organized a car wash, barbecue lunch, contests, food trucks, jeans days, bake sales and other efforts, resulting in a $50,000 donation in support of BBBSC’s goal of providing support to nearly 1,800 one-to-one mentoring relationships between children facing adversity and adult volunteer mentors.
Ent was recognized as BBBSC-Pikes Peak’s Big Shot of the Year at its Big Night Out Gala in November for this generous donation and longtime partnership. When asked why BBBSC was selected for the campaign, Barbara Winter, Chief Community Officer, explained that “We actually put this selection to a vote of our workforce…so there’s certainly some name recognition [of BBBSC] with our workforce in the community. We view our membership as a representation of our community as a whole, and certainly, in fulfilling the aspirations of a credit union, we’re all about serving needs in our community. I’ve been a longtime member of the community and I know how vital and critical the mission and effort of Big Brothers Big Sisters is.”
We are grateful to the employees at Ent who believe in our mission and contributed to the selection process. Most importantly, we want to recognize those who have been or are currently personally involved in our mission as volunteer mentors. In addition to those who have participated in the past, Robert Snead is currently a mentor in Pikes Peak. We appreciate our dedicated mentors, without whom we wouldn’t be able to fulfill our mission!