FOLEY - Described by teachers and fellow volunteers as consistent, caring and dependable, Foley High School senior Ben Kraemer has become a role model for numerous children in Central Minnesota.

Over the past several years, Kraemer has spent much of his time involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters. The organization makes monitored matches between adult volunteers (“Bigs”) and children (“Littles”), ages 5 through 14 to help these children succeed.

Ben Kraemer (Dan DeBaun, WJON)
Ben Kraemer (Dan DeBaun, WJON)
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"I first got involved in it when I was a freshman and I wanted to do that because I volunteered in several classrooms and I wanted to do a one-on-one with one student. The best part is seeing that you can have a positive impact on someone's life because a lot of littles have a difficult home life."

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Kraemer has volunteered since 2013 and his consistent efforts to make a difference with children going through hard times was noticed with the Central Minnesota Big Brother of the year award last year. Beth Marquette with Big Brothers Big Sisters says Ben also brings his Little (both previous and current) small treats to celebrate different Holidays.

"It's definitely really rewarding and it's a lot of fun getting to know the kids because they're so interesting and a lot of fun to work with," Kraemer says.

In his spare time, Ben also tutors younger children, volunteers at his church and is heavily involved in the National Honor Society.

"For National Honor Society I'm the president, we coordinate all the blood drives at school which is twice a year and we also do vision and hearing screening."

As if this wasn’t enough, Kraemer is also a part of bowling league, art club and took a trip to Spain two years ago as part of the Spanish club. When he graduates he's planning to study spanish and psychology and is deciding between the University of Minnesota of the University of St. Thomas.

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