Big Brothers of America

Big Brothers of America is presented through its adult volunteers’ relationships with children assigned to them. For Dominick Corvaisis, the program is more than community service: it is his only sustained involvement outside his private world, and a form of care that reaches backward to his own lonely childhood. When he persuades Parker Faine to become a volunteer too, the work becomes a shared friendship with two boys—and an unexpected source of joy for Parker.

The program and Dominick’s reasons for joining

Dominick had been involved in Big Brothers of America for years, beginning in Portland, Oregon. It was his only community involvement and the one activity that could draw him out of his “rabbit hole.” The program’s importance is therefore personal as well as practical: spending time with children gives him a way to help someone else while offering comfort to the lonely child he once was.

That history shapes the future he imagines. Having spent his own childhood moving among foster homes and becoming increasingly withdrawn, Dominick hopes to adopt children when he eventually marries. In the meantime, his relationship with the boys in the program lets him practice a form of care he both needed and wants to give.

The Orange County matches

On the day of the outing, Dominick and Parker pick up Denny Ulmes and Nyugen Kao Tran, the two boys assigned to them by the Orange County chapter. Denny, twelve, is Parker’s “little brother”; his father died of cancer. Nyugen, thirteen, prefers to be called Duke, after John Wayne, whose films he loves. Bright, quick-witted, thin, and agile, he is the youngest son of Vietnamese refugees who fled the war. His father survived the war, a concentration camp, and a dangerous crossing by boat, but was later killed in a robbery while working a second job at a Seven-Eleven in Southern California.

The boys get along well, which is why Dominick and Parker often combine their outings. This time they plan a lazy afternoon at the beach, dinner at Hamburger Hamlet, and a movie. The plan reflects the program’s work at its most ordinary and concrete: adults make time for children, and companionship is built through a day spent together rather than through any grand intervention.

Parker’s reluctant involvement

Dominick had to persuade Parker to become a Big Brother. Parker initially argued that he was not suited to serve as a surrogate father, citing his drinking, womanizing, self-absorption, procrastination, and dislike of dogs. His resistance makes his eventual change especially clear: he does not join because he sees himself as a model adult, but because Dominick draws him into the commitment despite his protests.

At the beach, the water is too cold for swimming, so Parker turns the afternoon into a series of games. He organizes volleyball and surfside races, then involves Dominick and the boys in an elaborate game of his own invention using two Frisbees, a beach ball, and an empty soda can. Under his direction, they also build a sandcastle complete with a menacing dragon. Parker’s inventiveness makes the outing lively, but it also shows him actively taking responsibility for the boys’ enjoyment rather than standing apart from them.

A shared act of care

During an early dinner at Hamburger Hamlet in Costa Mesa, while the boys are in the bathroom, Parker tells Dominick that becoming a Big Brother was one of his best ideas. Dominick reminds him that the idea had required dragging him into the program. The exchange turns their earlier disagreement into affectionate recognition: Parker has found satisfaction in the very responsibility he had insisted he could not fulfill.

The episode presents Big Brothers of America as a relationship that benefits both sides. Dominick’s care for the boys answers an old loneliness in himself; Parker’s resistance gives way to pleasure in the work; and the children receive the attention of two adults who have chosen to spend the day with them. The organization’s significance in Dominick’s life lies precisely in this reciprocal quality: helping others draws him back into connection.