About a week ago, John Lynch a Jersey City “mover and shaker” contacted me to let me know his “little brother” would be Mayor for the day. John amongst all the other amazing things he does giving back to the Jersey City community, volunteers for the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Hudson County. Every week he hangs out with little brother Nicholas and mentors him. It’s a beautiful thing.

Nicholas was one of the few lucky ones that got to be “Mayor of the day”! Every couple of weeks a lucky kid gets to tag a long with Mayor Steven Fulop for a few hours, and gets to go to ribbon cuttings, flag raisings and whatever fun activities the Mayor takes part of (he officiated a wedding that day!) I joined them at City Hall for the LGBT flag raising and did a fun interview with Mayor Nicholas and his adorable little sister! The Mayor of the day was so well dressed!! Maybe he can teach Fulop a few things?! haha. I kid, I kid.

What’s your name? My name is Nicholas and I am here with my Big Brother, John. I love having a Big Brother and I think other kids should have mentors, too!

What do you do? Are you a student? Yeah.

How old are you? Nine.

How does it feel to be Mayor of the Day? It feels great.

Read me your speech! Thank you, Mr. Mayor! My name is Nicholas and I am here with my Big Brother, John. I love having a Big Brother and I think other kids should have mentors, too!

And so is John (Lynch) your big brother? Sometimes we go out for ice cream, we go to the park. We go to Liberty Science Center, movies, we play baseball, basketball, and I win. We have a lot fun.  We also talk about school and getting good grades.

Where did you get your suit? Macy’s.

John: DeCarlos tailored it.

If you were Mayor what would you do? I would have no school for everyone!

No school for everyone! Okay, that’s a pretty good one!

John, anything you’d like to add to the Mayor of the Day? What is this about? 

John: The Mayor of the Day, first of all, the Mayor is very, very sharp looking.

Right, he looks really good.

John: I don’t know where he’s getting his lessons on dressing from.

From you for sure, you guys match too.

John: We’re also going to turn him into Mr. Popular

I like that, he’s gonna steal your title.

John: He is gonna steal my title, he’s already stole my dress-look. Anyway, this is just a great opportunity within the Big Brothers, Big Sisters programs to highlight some of the wonderful things that Big Brothers, Big Sisters do. In addition, from a very early age they’re learning what goes on in City Hall. Earlier today, we went down to the courthouse and they saw the whole courts system and everybody was saying, “Hello Mayor.” When he walked in they were giving the Mayor respect, he knew he was the top guy today.

And Jazlyn, Jazlyn is gonna be the Deputy Mayor today.

What’s your name? My name is Carlos.

What do you do? I’m the head of Big Brothers, Big Sisters.

What does Big Brothers, Big Sisters do? We try to provide positive male role models and female role models for our children in Hudson County, Essex County. The phrase that really sticks out to me is, “You can’t be what you can’t see,” and many of our kids need that positive adult role model to show them new experiences, expose them to new things and this is a great example of that. To be able to have a child exposed to the courts, bring a judge, the legal system, running the city, all the things that demystify what runs our community and this is one example. This is not to say he’s going to be a judge, but it gives him exposure to something new through the lens of his mentors, big brother. And we just do fun things too, he was playing basketball the other day with John and I believe he kicked John’s butt.

John: Big Brothers Big Sisters can be summed up in two words Affecting Lives! It affects both Children and their parents. Out of the all things I ever done, from being awarded trophies from sports, awards, recognition’s, events I hosted or been involved in, ect…. Being a Big Brother is the most rewarding thing I have ever done!

If people want to volunteer and be a Big Brother or Big Sister what do they need to do? Carlos: They need to reach out to us via Facebook or our website. There’s a particular call to action to have more men step up honestly. We have hundreds of boys on our waiting list and not enough men stepping up; it’s only four hours a month for one year to become a Big in our program. So it’s a very simple thing, it’s an hour a week.

And it’s nice, it makes a huge difference. It makes a huge difference, research shows it, we’re very data driven, but it’s also fun to do things like this. Throughout the experience you’re building a bond with another person who just needs and wants love and attention.

Nicholas: Thank you, Mr. Mayor!

Jazlyn: Thank you Mr. Mayor for the Big Brother and Big Sister Program its good and you made it wonderful. You’re doing a good job Mayor.

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