By CONNOR O’SHAUGHNESSY
Marketing Communications Coordinator, Big Brothers Big Sisters Northeast Indiana

FORT WAYNE — Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northeast Indiana awarded the Diane Humphrey Award to Sherri Milton, Warsaw, during the Eighth Annual Women’s Champagne Brunch at the Grand Wayne Convention Center to benefit the organization and its mission to help local children reach their potential through professionally supported one-to-one mentor relationships. The Diane Humphrey Award was established in 2012 and is given to an individual or individuals in recognition of commitment and contribution to youth in our community.

For more than 30 years, Milton has been making an impact everywhere she goes. With care and concern for others at the forefront of her life, Milton believes everyone possesses the inherent ability to have an impact to those around them. Through countless efforts and hours, she has chosen to spend her time volunteering and organizing groups to help those with the greatest risk and need.

Originally from Evansville, Milton gained early experience with volunteering through her children; she served as a scout leader, a homeroom leader at her children’s schools and a volunteer for her son’s high school marching band. She also served on the Lutheran School Board in Evansville. It was through these experiences that she discovered her affinity for children and realized the opportunity to help them reach their true potential.

Today, Milton lives in the Warsaw area and her desire to help children in need has never been stronger! While she recently retired from her position as the director of medical education at Zimmer Biomet, there are few idle moments in her daily routine; she has been a Big Sister to Little Sister Sarah since 2005, for which she received the “Big Sister of the Year” award in 2012. Now that Little Sister Sarah is in high school and has become more independent, Milton opted to pursue a second community-based match with Little Sister Parriah in August 2015. Milton also serves on the BBBS Board of Directors, helped open and fund the BBBS satellite office in Kosciusko and has spearheaded signature fundraisers in Kosciusko including the Big Celebration and Ride 4 Kids’ Sake.

In addition to her immense work with Big Brothers Big Sisters, Milton serves as a volunteer with the Kosciusko YMCA, the United Way of Kosciusko County, Kosciusko County Educational Development and countless other organizations. On top of all that, she finds the time to be a loving wife to her husband, Terry, a mother to two adult children and two stepchildren and a grandmother to three grandchildren. The underlying factor of each of Milton’s accomplishments is a foundational belief that one doesn’t have to be “extraordinary” to make a positive impact in the lives of those around us — we just have to care enough to start something. Needless to say, Milton cares, and she has started something big in her community.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northeast Indiana is a nonprofit organization that serves children in Adams, Allen, DeKalb, Huntington, Kosciusko, LaGrange, Noble, Steuben, Wells, and Whitley counties in Indiana and Branch, Hillsdale and St. Joseph counties in Michigan. Big Brothers Big Sister’s mission is to help children reach their potential through professionally supported one to one relationships with measureable impact. Learn how you can positively impact a child’s life, donate or volunteer at www.BBBSNEI.org.