Almost two decades of work and dedication has been put into Heart of Iowa Big Brothers Big Sisters by Lynne Carroll. However, on Thursday her role as executive director came to an end as she chose to retire before reaching the age of 66, which she did on Friday.

“I would continue to do this forever, but it’s time to reduce some of the stress in my life,” she said.

That does not mean the executive director role is extremely stressful. Carroll indicated it could lean one way or the other.

“When you make out a budget for the upcoming year, and you [ask] ‘Where is our revenue coming from?'” she said. “You look at what that is and you realize we have great hopes to get this grant and that grant, but nothing is guaranteed. This is every nonprofit.”

Carroll said that Heart of Iowa BBBS does have some financial stability. For example, Marshalltown Area United Way provides some, but how much they receive each year depends on how much money United Way raises. They also receive at-risk funding from the school district which she said can be counted upon.

However, there is also financial uncertainty as the economy and grant changes can have an impact. Carroll used that uncertainty as a motivator.

“Basically, that’s the job of the director, but in a small agency, you wear a lot of hats,” Carroll said. “I [was] the HR person, the finance person, the fundraiser, the vacuumer. The beauty of all of that is there is never a day that is the same as before. There’s a variety. One day I could be writing a grant report . . . the next day I might be helping with an activity we have for kids. It’s just good fun. Variety is the beauty of it all.”

The kids were a big motivator for Carroll. She did not spend the entire 18 years as the executive director of the community-based nonprofit. Carroll spent the first four as a match support specialist which included pairing Littles — children enrolled in the program — with Bigs – adults or older teenagers serving as mentors.

“I’ve always had that draw to working with kids, and there was an ad in the paper for a part-time position,” she said. “So, I applied. It was a great fit from the very beginning.”

Working with Littles helped give her a deeper understanding of the motivation of why she wanted to be the executive director.

“It’s about helping kids have a brighter future,” Carroll said.

She credited Heart of Iowa staff with being the key to connecting the Littles with the Bigs.

“I had one small part behind the scenes,” Carroll said. “What happens most of the time is the mentor is impacting the child by having conversation, paying attention to them, helping them experience something brand new and developing that relationship and friendship.”

There are 145 mentors at Heart of Iowa BBBS, including 95 high school students. There is also a waiting list for Littles.

Carroll’s impact

Knowing how many kids have been impacted during her tenure is difficult. She said it can be hard to count as some children are in the program for 16 years, some for a lot less time. One thing that did benefit was the budget.

“I know that since I’ve been there, we doubled our budget,” Carroll said.

She said the money raised from the annual Bowl for Kids’ Sake fundraiser has increased significantly. An endowment was also started. Carroll recalled the financial situation before the positive changes were instituted.

“We were using a business line of credit and as a nonprofit that is not a good sign,” she said. “That was in October and Bowl for Kids Sake was coming up. We were able to pay off the credit and haven’t been back there since.”

The new executive director, Brookelyn Schlawin, added that the annual revenue increased by 120 percent while her predecessor was at the helm.

Even with the positive financial gains, it all comes back to the children for Carroll. The relationships that were built between Littles and Bigs during her 18 years give her the strongest sense of pride.

“They reflect back to who we are as an agency,” she said. “The fact that you know they’re key leaders in the community makes a difference. We know that they’re speaking positively about who we are. That reputation is positive. The school district relationships have been positive, and relationships are a key, important part.”

Carroll also pointed out that Heart of Iowa BBBS was named a Gold Standard Quality Mentor, a title given to Big Brothers Big Sisters agencies which develop high-quality mentoring relationships with carefully matched Bigs and Littles.

“We’re at that level across the state of Iowa,” she said. “We’ve won four national awards since I’ve been here. That is largely due to the relationship we have with the community and the fabulous staff who made the connections with kids.”

Schlawin said Carroll always had new ideas for Heart of Iowa, and was continuous in updating the processes and programs.

“She has never been stale on ideas, which is lovely because you need to have ideas for all the different grants and things along those lines,” she said. “I do appreciate that I do not have to use a business line of credit and stress about money. She got us in a good spot financially and has all of those documents for me to track everything smoothly. She was able to just hand everything over nicely.”

Coming up with ideas and being willing to switch things up helped Heart of Iowa BBBS meet the biggest challenge during Carroll’s tenure — the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We had to rethink about how we did mentoring with COVID,” she said. “The national office was helpful with ideas. That got us going and we figured out how to make it work. Staff did a lot of the legwork.”

With school not being in session, staff would go to the Littles homes to meet with them on front steps, and would bring something for the kids to do.

Another idea Carroll had, but was unable to put in place, was group mentoring. She said it would involve children of similar ages meeting in a focus group on a regular basis. Schlawin hopes to implement group mentoring, and added it is something the national office is working on as it is a popular concept.

“After they do some of the initiatives, it will be easier on our part to do that,” she said. “In the future, I think it will fall into our laps.”

The records Carroll kept and the free exchange of information has reduced any sense of nervousness for Schlawin. She was also able to ask questions when she was first hired as a match support specialist in October.

“We’ve been talking about this and thinking about this, the best way to do this and it has been so beneficial to both of us,” Schlawin said. “Hopefully you feel entirely comfortable handing it over and I feel entirely comfortable now taking over, knowing what I need to do when I need to do it.”

Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.