We stand for Black lives. Black youth. Black futures.
See our COVID-19 Response & Resources

In the News

38 Years and 3 Months of Immeasurable Impact – What a Career!

Anne Marie’s first day with Big Brothers Big Sisters was back on January 1st of 1984.

It is truly bittersweet as we celebrate our beloved colleague and Match Support Specialist extraordinaire, Anne Marie McMullen, as she officially retires after 38 years of dedicated service to Big Brothers Big Sisters. That’s right … nearly four decades of positively impacting local youth.

Anne Marie’s first day with Big Brothers Big Sisters was back on January 1st of 1984. This was the same year that the original Apple Macintosh personal computer went on sale, the US accomplished its first untethered spacewalk, Ronald Reagan became President of the United States, and Prince’s hit song, “When Doves Cry,” rose to number one on the Billboard 100.

During her tenure, Anne Marie navigated through three mergers and helped hundreds of New Jersey youth work with their Big Brothers and Big Sisters to overcome major obstacles and achieve success in life. She also started the St. Stephen’s School-Based program, a unique mentoring program where high school students mentor elementary students.

We can’t even begin to count the number of support calls, interviews, trainings, picnics, parent sessions, or recruiting pitches that Anne Marie has completed over the years, but we do know that our staff members love her. Here’s what a few of them had to say:

“She loved her St. Stephens program and her Bigs loved her too! She had many former Bigs that would visit her program to just to say hi and welcome new matches to the program.”

“Anne Marie hosted several Bridging the Summer Gap Programs with her St. Stephens program. One experience that stands out was watching Anne Marie have more fun than the kids on the trampoline!”

“At the start of the pandemic, Anne Marie changed her work schedule to 11-7 to be available to talk with parents after 5pm. I remember her saying that she felt it was important to be there for the Littles and their families during difficult times and that’s why she had no problems working late.”

“She spent many hours personally going through training materials to recommend which ones would be good to help Bigs enhance their understanding of Diversity Equity and Inclusion.”

“She is always willing to help whenever needed. She has covered match support for countless program caseloads over the years and helped other teams when they were really short-staffed.”

“Something that always stands out to me with Anne Marie is how well she connected with the parents and guardians with kids enrolled in our programs. She truly cares about the whole family of the children we serve.”

“Above all, Anne Marie has been a treasure to this agency and the youth she has served all these years! She is one-of-a-kind and she will leave a lasting impact on this agency.”

Please join us as we congratulate Anne Marie on her retirement!