BELLEVUE, Wash. — A group of social media and style influencers did some back-to-school shopping for local students in need Tuesday.
Nordstrom Rack covered the cost as Big Brothers Big Sisters of Puget Sound provided wish lists from students who were nominated.
President and CEO Alonda Williams was on hand to see the personal shoppers stack up the items requested by the students in their personal style guides. Williams said this is a much-needed bright spot for the kids and the need for positive role models is high.
“We have about 300 kids on the wait list so if there’s anyone out there interested in becoming a mentor we have space for you and would love to have you,” Williams said.
Big Brother Big Sisters provides monitored matches between adult volunteers (“Bigs”) and children (“Littles”).
The Rack to School shopping event was held in Factoria and provided two hours of private in-store shopping for the influencers to curate a back-to-school collection for each kid. Shoes, clothes and backpacks were all-hand picked from the latest styles.
Meliz Andiroglu is the senior brand PR manager for Nordstrom and said Big Brothers Big Sisters has been a charitable partner since 2019. She, herself, is a mentor.
“I’m a Big and they’ve been incredible partners so there’s opportunities for our employees to get involved as ‘Bigs’ and I’m so excited to be a part of the program,” Andiroglu said.
Big Brother Big Sisters of Puget Sound has been Washington’s largest donor-and-volunteer-supported mentoring organization since 1950. The mission remains the same: Create and support one-to-one mentoring relationships that ignite the power and promise of youth.