Mentor named Big Brother of the Year

When Lance Horne was a child, he was trying to get through one of the hardest times in his life.

After losing both of his parents, Horne was matched with a mentor through Big Brothers Big Sisters. That relationship gave him something steady to hold onto and helped shape his future.

“I was a Little Brother in the program. When I was about 7 or 8 years old, my dad passed away, and my mom thought I could use some mentorship and signed me up for the program,” Horne said.

Even then, he made a quiet promise to himself. One day, he would become a Big Brother, too.

Today, he is doing just that and has been named Big Brother of the Year.

“Being awarded Big Brother of the Year is something I didn’t expect. I was floored, honored,” Horne said.

Three years ago, Horne was matched with Kaiden Drummond, who was 11 at the time. Kaiden was struggling in school and trying to manage his emotions. From the beginning, the connection between the two was natural.

“She signed me up, we went through the whole process, and we just clicked,” Kaiden said.

Horne saw himself in Kaiden right away. 

“When I looked at him, I looked at a piece of me. He was a young man who was the man of his house, and I became the man of my house at a young age, losing my father. I felt like I had a lot of tools that I could pass down to him,” he said.

Through steady mentorship, Kaiden says he has found someone he can rely on.

“It felt like I had somebody I could rely on, other than my mom, obviously,” he said. “Somebody I can call if I really need to,”

For Horne, being a mentor is not about having all the answers. “Just because I’m a Big Brother doesn’t mean I have it all figured out,” he said.

Kwame Johnson from Big Brothers Big Sisters says stories like this highlight a larger need in the community.

“We have over 200 people waiting for mentors, young men like Kaiden. Over 200 who are waiting, so we need more people to sign up,” he said.

For Horne, the recognition is meaningful but not the reason he signed up. It goes back to the promise he made as a child and to the mentor who once showed up for him. 

Now he is passing that forward and helping the next generation not just get through difficult moments but start to see what is possible.