Little Brothers and Sisters check out Air Force base at ‘Big for a Day’

The kids chatted excitedly with the airmen walking beside them as they climbed the stairs into McConnell Air Force Base’s massive KC-135 Stratotanker “Keeper of the Plains.”

The giant refueling aircraft was one of the main draws at this year’s “Big for a Day” event. The annual program, organized by Big Brothers Big Sisters and the 22nd Operations Group and 349th Air Refueling Squadron — both stationed at McConnell — is an opportunity for the children to experience the base and develop long-lasting bonds with its airmen.

At the event, about 60 kids ages 6 to 15 paired up with the base’s airmen as they checked out the plane, a robot the 22nd Civil Engineer Squadron Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit operates to detect and disarm bombs, a fire truck and other displays.

Seven-year-old Bry’ana said her favorite part was learning about how “Mama Bird flies over the baby birds so she can feed them.” Her Big Sister for the day, Airman Haley Atwood, explained that she was talking about the KC-135 and how it flies over smaller planes to refuel them.

This was Atwood’s first Big for a Day; she arrived on the base only two months ago from her home in Tennessee.

“This girl I babysit back home, it’s her birthday — she turns 9 today,” Atwood said. “I thought, ‘What better way to celebrate than a day with kids?’ ”

Big Brothers Big Sisters helps boys and girls achieve their full potential through long-term relationships with carefully screened volunteers, the organization said. Most of the children are considered at risk and live in single-parent homes.

The kids at the event were mostly “littles” who had not yet been attached to a more permanent “big,” according to Megan Lazzo, a volunteer enrollment specialist with Big Brothers Big Sisters. Organizers of the event hope it will draw participating airmen toward the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization.

“The endgame (is) to entice them to commit full time to being a Big Brother or Big Sister,” said Capt. Nathan Thibault, who helped organize the event from the McConnell side.

That’s what happened to Joel Gonzalez, who also helped organize the event for McConnell. He volunteered at Big for a Day last year, then paired up with a full-time Little Brother about six months later.

He said it can be challenging to work around his deployments but that he enjoys spending time with his “little.”

Thibault, too, is a full-time Big Brother. This was his second year volunteering at Big for a Day, which he said is a good reminder of “why we do what we do.”

“A day like this is an awesome chance for us to get out of the office and really be reminded of what’s important in the community,” he said.

This story was originally published August 9, 2016 at 6:08 PM with the headline "Little Brothers and Sisters check out Air Force base at ‘Big for a Day’."