Park County, Montana, is where much of the filming was done for A River Runs Through It, a movie centered on fly fishing. The area is so rural that it's actually considered a frontier county—it has a population of less than six people per square mile—and the largest town, Livingston, has just eight thousand people. So when Big Brothers Big Sisters of Park County decided they wanted to take mentoring to a whole new level, the staff wondered if such a small community could support such big dreams. They were surprised at what they found.

Annette Leeland, the executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Park County, said her staff has what they call a "five-refrigerator" rule.

"If a child can walk into five homes and use a refrigerator without asking for permission, then that child will be well-supported," she said. Having this kind of adult support, she said, will help kids be more resilient when coping with difficulties and in resisting difficult or problem behaviors.

"We hope that our volunteers will be one more refrigerator for kids," she said.

Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS), the oldest and largest youth mentoring organization in the United States, hires social workers as case managers to recruit, train, screen, and match volunteers with children.

In Park County, the BBBS group had been working with up to fifty children at a time for the past twenty years, but in 1999, the board of directors set a goal to reach more children. Leeland left her job in San Francisco to become executive director of BBBS of Park County the same year. She said she was blessed with a visionary board who saw the benefits of mentoring all children, not just those from single-parent families. Schools and the community benefit from mentoring as well, she said.

For example, in the tiny town of Gardiner, Montana (population 800), the school has 200 children in kindergarten through twelfth grade—eighty-five of them in grades ten to twelve. Leeland said of those eighty-five high-school-age students, seventy-two are mentors to younger children.

"We've created a culture at that school where mentoring has become an institutionalized expectation," she said.

Leeland said the high school has had no dropouts in five years, and the school principal credits BBBS for creating a climate where kids feel connected and supported.

BBBS of Park County has also started a program called "Girl Power" to reach middle school girls, one of the groups most at risk for taking methamphetamines—a big problem in rural areas, said Leeland. Girl Power includes activities with mentors that help the girls develop a positive body image, create more self-confidence, and nurture leadership abilities.

Nowadays, BBBS of Park County supports more than 450 matches between children and volunteers annually—significantly more than the fifty of six years ago—and trains and supervises over 150 high school students from all four high schools in the area to mentor younger children. But BBBS of Park County wants to reach even more children—all 4,000 in their service area, in fact.

To pay for the increase in staff needed to support and train more mentors, BBBS of Park County is on a ten-year plan to increase its budget from $350,000 a year to $990,000. (Leeland said $1 million sounded too scary.)

BBBS of Park County currently gets nearly half of its budget from individual donors, including the annual bowl-a-thon ($60,000 a year). The rest comes from government funding (22%), small local and family foundations (22%), and business partnerships (7%).

Leeland said she knew individual donors would be their ticket to success because that was one area that had the most potential for growth. So when BBBS of America said it would pay part of the tuition for Benevon training and coaching, Leeland's team jumped at the chance. Although the team was excited to go to a Benevon 101 Workshop, they had their reservations.

"We wondered if this system would work in a rural community like ours," Leeland said. Her team wondered whether there would be enough people to come to their introductory Point of Entry^® Events or their fundraising Ask Event. But they aren't wondering any more. The response has been great.

BBBS of Park County started doing their Point of Entry Events every month, and what they found is that no one really knew what they were up to.

"There was already a vague positive feeling toward us," she said. "But the Point of Entry Events have allowed us to educate people in-depth."

Her group held a practice Ask Event^™ in May, 2004—a luncheon with 100 people.

Leeland said she normally hates putting on events because so much time is spent on figuring out details, rather than promoting the organization's mission. But the Ask Event program was different—it focused completely on the mission of the organization.

At her group's May Ask Event, they had a panel of children who answered questions. The children were given the questions beforehand, but no one knew what they would say.

"One boy really got to everyone," said Leeland.

"When he was asked, 'What's one of the most favorite things you do with your Big Brother?' he replied, 'ride bikes.'

"When he was asked, 'Why do you like to ride bikes?' he replied, 'It's what I did with my father before he died of cancer last year.'

"The feedback we got after the event was 110% positive," Leeland said.

They held another Ask Event in the fall. Between the two events, they raised $140,000 in gifts and pledges. Leeland said the events replaced a dinner/auction that brought in $25,000, so they were thrilled with the results.

Leeland said the Benevon Model and coaching is allowing her group to dream big and pursue their goal of bringing mentoring to every child in Park County.

"It's done a lot for us to raise funds. It's also energized the board, and it's given us a very clear path to know what steps we need to do. If we follow the steps, we will meet our goals," she said.

BBBS of Park County, Montana, was one of the first groups to sign up for the Benevon Five-Year Sustainable Funding Program.