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Big Brothers Big Sisters Portsmouth Office Closes Doors


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The South Central Ohio Big Brothers Big Sisters office is dealing with budget cuts, forcing the program to eliminate its school-based mentoring program and close its office doors in Portsmouth.

The program lost $5,000 from a funding agency, causing a struggle to serve the children in the program.

Executive Director Karen McDonald Myers says they have been doing their best to deal with the lack of funds.

"We've kind of just trimmed everywhere that we can trim, and now what we need to do is raise more money," says Myers.

A local donor has offered to contribute half of the money needed if the community can match the rest.

Myers says they are looking for local organizations to help contribute, and then they will rely on fund-raisers, such as Bowl for Kids Sake, to keep the programs running.

"People from the community come out and bowl and they raise money. It's a bowlathon versus a walkathon and they bring in their sponsors and it is one of the big fund-raisers we all do," says Myers.

The program hopes to create more revenue from fund-raising events, and obtain more volunteers.