CLEARWATER, Fla. — They're memories 52 years in the making – hanging in photo frames on the foyer of Alice Young’s home in Clearwater.

  • Alice Young brought Big Brothers Big Sisters to Pinellas in 1968
  • Young and Melita were the first big and little in Pinellas
  • The pair still keep in touch to this day

Alice Young, or Sweet Alice, as she’s better known, has known Melita since she was 5-years-old.

“She was real shy but she’s not shy anymore,” she reminisced.

Sweet Alice and Melita are the first Big and Little in Big Brothers Big Sisters Pinellas County history.

You see – Sweet Alice was the one who brought the organization to Pinellas County residents. 

“I got 30 women together. We started the Big Sisters of Pinellas County October of 1968,” she said.

Thanks to Sweet Alice, thousands and thousands of Pinellas County kids have had a mentor in their lives from 1968 through the present day.

“When you look back on what she did at that time and what she achieved, it’s really remarkable,” said Big Brothers Big Sisters Tampa Bay CEO Stephen Koch.

This year, BBBS Tampa Bay created a staff award in her honor – the Sweet Alice Award.

“She has all these great characteristics we’d like all our staff to emulate. She has like so much passion for kids and wanting to do good,” Koch said. 

Sweet Alice and Melita, who's now 57-years-old, still keep in touch to this day.

“I was there when her first child was born, I was there for her wedding,” she said.

Though Sweet Alice never had any children of her own, she now has grandkids and great-grandkids thanks to Melita.

“She is my family cause I don’t have that many left,” she said.

In fact, she still keeps the picture from their very first outing that October in 1968 – taken at a mall photo booth.

It hangs on her foyer – next to a very special letter.

“When she was 38 she sent me this letter saying, ‘I don’t know what my life would have been like if I hadn’t met you,” she said. “I framed it, it’s on my wall. I see it every day. I’m sure I’ve done a lot of bad things in the world but this is a good thing. So, I’m pleased.”