CHENANGO COUNTY – The Big Brother/Big Sister program has helped hundreds of children over the years by pairing them with adult mentors.

Continuing that effort, the program is now inside schools pairing elementary-aged children with their older counter-parts.

“The school site-based program brings a unique mentoring strategy that allows elementary students to be paired with high school students throughout the school year,” said Patricia Yaddow, the organization’s school site-based coordinator in Oxford.

The school-based program in Oxford and Norwich ended for the year with celebrations June 2 and June 5 at both schools. All the mentors in the program were recognized along with the younger students. Special recognition was given to this year’s “bigs” who went the extra mile for their “little” or for the program overall.

“The program’s focus is to have the older children help the younger students with both in and out of school issues,” said Yaddow.