One of Bermuda?s top mentors urged other men thinking about joining the Big Brothers and Big Sisters programme to stop considering and just do it.

?Don?t stand there and look, just go there,? said Big Brother of the year Winfield Symonds. ?It is rewarding to make someone else happy in life.

?You never know until you really get the inside picture, what is really happening with a lot of these young kids today. They get very destructive. They need something to motivate them on the positive side.?

Mr. Symonds? little brother Kervin Moreno, 9, nominated him to be Big Brother of the Year. Kervin is a student at St. George?s Preparatory School.

Kervin wrote, ?My big brother is the best thing that has happened to not just me but my family as well. He is such a beautiful person, inside and out. Since I have had my Big, my life has changed so much. He got me more involved in soccer which I am very good at and got me on a wonderful team, X-Roads Warriors.?

Mr. Symonds has been Kervin?s mentor for almost a year.

?I just wanted to be a father figure and big brother for a little one,? said Mr. Symonds. ?I have never had a son myself.?

It turned out that Mr. Symonds and Kervin had a lot in common including an interest in sports, and a certain family dynamic.

?I was also the only son in a house full of women,? said Mr. Symonds. ?I had two sisters and Kervin has two older sisters also.?

Mr. Symonds said he was very emotional when he realised they were reading an essay about him.

?At first I didn?t realise it was about me,? he said. ?Then I heard my name. I was really happy.?

Kervin wrote, ?He is not just a Big to me, but a father I don?t have in my life. The times I have been with my Big have been fun. I enjoy being with him.

?He even took me out to lunch with him on Father?s Day. That was to be his special day and he took me along. My mom said I am lucky to have a Big like him.?

Mr. Symonds helps Kervin with his reading, and recently bought him scrambling gear to go with a new scrambling bike. He can?t see his Little every day, but he often calls and asks how he is, or telephones the school to see how Kervin is doing.

?He has improved a lot as far as his schoolwork is concerned,? said Mr. Symonds.

?He is more relaxed at home. He doesn?t feel like everyone is picking on him. He is doing very well. He is tremendous at soccer. I think he is going to be the next Shawn Goater.

?I played soccer back in the day, marshal arts, I do a lot of running. I have to keep myself fit to keep up with him.?

Mr. Symonds works as a carpenter for Gray Man Construction, and hopes to take Kervin onto a job site one day to give him a taste of what the working world is like.

?My message for him is to keep positive,? said Mr. Symonds.

?There is a lot of life to live and a lot of the world to see.?