Great Western Dining has been a corporate partner with Big Brothers Big Sisters for the past five years. It is a relationship that we highly value.

Our organization was looking for a way to become more involved in both community activities supporting youth as well as larger scale events bringing together a diverse group of people allowing team involvement. Big Brothers Big Sisters has been a successful match in both areas for us on many levels.

We have worked with BBBS to establish the best ways to support the organization while impacting our team. Being a restaurant organization, we have been able to host volunteer celebrations in our restaurants, participate in offsite recruiting events, offer incentives for matches and volunteers and provide food to many BBBS meetings and functions. We are also able to give our team members information about volunteer events in which they may choose to participate.

BBBS has also allowed us to tailor fundraising events to meet our staff needs. We have successfully hosted our own corporate Bowl for Kids' Sake the past two years. This has been a great event for us by bringing our teams together not only to raise funds for BBBS but also as a fun team bonding experience.

At a local level, our restaurant managers have been able to work directly with the smaller chapters as well to directly impact their community. We have hosted holiday dinners, sponsored sports events and used advertising pieces to inform our guest base about this great organization and the opportunities it provides.

Working with BBBS has allowed a majority of our 1800-team members to take part in volunteerism and given our restaurants an opportunity to be involved in the needs of and give back to their community. It has been a wonderful relationship that we expect to continue to evolve through the years. The impact has been nothing but positive for our entire organization.

We look forward to a long lasting partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters!

- Pandora Lemons, Great Western Dining, DBA Red Robin, Winners, Copper Sky, and Papa John's