It is often said that it is the little things that matter when interacting with children of impressionable ages. Approximately twelve years ago, volunteer Big Sister Kim Fowler met a young ten-year-old girl named Dottie Akins for the first time in Dottie’s school cafeteria. They talked about school and music, went out on a brief visit, and began a friendship that would last for more than five years.
Fowler was a young professional starting out as a publicist in the music industry. She had seen her parents volunteer as mentors to two children years ago while growing up in Chattanooga, and knew that being a mentor to a child was the ideal way to give back to the Nashville community.
“Dottie was so cute, and so smiley!” says Fowler – recalling that first day the two met. “She was a smart kid, and she quickly picked up on my personality and teased me a lot... even at age ten!”
“Kim was so cool, she reminded me of my older sister that had just moved away from home,” commented . “She just looked like someone I really wanted to hang out with and get to know.”
Dottie is one of six children at home with a single mother – and her mom was a strong influence in her life, “but we just didn’t get to do much – there were no extras around our house.”
“We certainly weren’t wealthy – understandably so with six children in the house – but our mom always looked out for our best interests, including enrolling us in Big Brothers Big Sisters.”
Dottie and Kim did all sorts of things together – window shopping, going out to eat, and talking about school and sports. Kim relayed that Dottie was always a good student – able to recite all the Presidents of the United States in order at a very young age. “She was also a caring child, I remember seeing her interact with a younger niece she had – and Dottie was so thoughtful and loving.”
“Kim took me to my first concert, John Michael Montgomery and Terri Clark – and I even got to meet Terri Clark!” recalled Adkins. “To a ten-year-old girl, that was absolutely amazing beyond my wildest dreams.” Sometimes the duo would go out with the Big Sisters and Big Brother of Dottie’s siblings and go horseback riding or a joint trip to the park as well.
In the course of her job, Fowler occasionally took her Little Sister along for interviews or concerts with other country music clients such as Dolly Parton, and the young girl just loved it. “She was always a fan of country music, thankfully!” recalled Fowler.
Dottie always enjoyed the excitement of her Big Sisters’ profession, but thought she wanted to become a sports broadcaster one day. “My older brother took care of us younger children a lot, and we played a lot of baseball and other sports with him,” recalled Adkins. “I was a total tomboy athlete.”
As is often the case, Adkins’ visions for her future changed as the years went by and after high school graduation, she enrolled at Middle Tennessee State University, Fowler’s alma mater, as an education major. “Kim and I had drifted apart once I turned fifteen or so, we each just had so much going on in our lives.” She continued, “I always considered her a friend, and was so grateful for all those years of friendship and counsel – even though at fifteen I thought I knew everything.”
“My older sister was a teacher, and I had enjoyed spending time with her class,” Adkins commented. “I worked as a nanny, loved children, and thought that was my destiny.” But then that destiny was suddenly not as fulfilling as Adkins had hoped, and she began to talk with her mother about alternate career paths.
Fowler on the other hand was continuing to work as a publicist in Nashville, busy molding the careers of several entertainers and adding to her connections, and often thought of the cute, smiling girl named Dottie from her past. Their two lives, however, never connected as Adkins graduated from high school, enrolled in college, and was on the path to realizing a bright future.
“It was my mom who brought up Kim, after all those years, and asked about exactly what my Big Sister had done for a living,” Adkins recalled. “We were trying to figure out a way to combine my continued love of sports and a viable career – and Kim’s work as a publicist and my having witnessed so much of what that entailed – just made everything click for me.”
Upon returning to MTSU the following semester, Adkins changed her major to Public Relations and began on a path to one day work in sports marketing. She loved her course work, and enjoyed the opportunity to be able to share experiences from her time with her Big Sister with her classmates. Adkins graduated from MTSU this spring, and the first order of business for her was reaching out to her Big Sister to let her know what an impression her mentorship had made on her future.
“We got together just this week for lunch... and my first shock was the elegant, stylish young woman I met in Dottie,” recalled Fowler. “When she was younger, we shopped for clothes a lot – and it was always baggy jeans, oversize t-shirts, and white sneakers.”
“The young woman I met this past week is still Dottie – but we discovered we even shop at the same stores now,” she commented. After lunch, the two did take a trip to the clearance room of Anthropologie, their agreed upon favorite destination for fashion bargains.
“I am so deeply happy and touched that Dottie and I have reconnected – I often thought about her over the years, but I had no idea that our little moments of friendship was going to help shape her future in such a positive way,” Fowler shared. “I was just having fun with a kid – often thinking that I got more out of our friendship that Dottie.”
Adkins chimed in, “People don’t understand how much it means to you, a ten-year-old child with a single parent, to simply have a friend who is there for you – a Big Sister or Big Brother.”
“The everyday things like going out to eat and talking about your job, your life, and the importance of school can be huge – I know in my case they were,” Adkins continued. “I realize that for me to succeed in my career path, I will most likely have to move away from Nashville for a few years. But as soon as I’m settled in Atlanta or Charlotte or wherever, I am calling up Big Brothers Big Sisters in that city to volunteer.”
“And until that happens, we have a shopping date for next month – and I’m so looking forward to it!” shared Fowler.
