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Meet The Winner: Kathleen Mitchell!

Posted 08/01/2017

Kathleen Mitchell, of Milton, was the big winner in Big Sister Association of Greater Boston’s 29th Annual Car Raffle. Today she visited Big Sister’s office to collect her prize. While she said her “heart was with the car,” a 2017 Audi A3 convertible from Prime Motor Group, she wanted to take the cash to do “some nice things” for others–including making a generous donation to Big Sister! 

Kathleen was accompanied by her sister, Anne, who also lives in Milton, just 1.5 miles from Kathleen. The two were born and raised in Dorchester. Kathleen began her career as a teacher in the Boston Public School system, holding positions at the David A. Ellis and the Lewis K-8 School for a decade, before becoming a lawyer. Working in downtown Boston in the mid-1990s, Kathleen first saw the car and learned about Big Sister Boston’s annual Car Raffle. It was then that she purchased her first raffle ticket. She continued to buy a ticket nearly every year following that, hoping that she would be the winner. “‘Never give up hope,’ that’s what I always say,” Kathleen told staff at Big Sister when she received her winning check. 

Kathleen said that in addition to never giving up the hope that she might just be the winner someday, she continued to buy raffle tickets year after year as her contribution to an organization she truly believes in. She and her sister were the product of an all-girls’ school and parents who they say were very charitable, instilling a giving spirit in their daughters. Both Kathleen and her sister were trailblazers in their careers–Kathleen was originally the only female lawyer at the company where she began her law career, and Anne worked as a computer programmer for the federal government and was one of the first women to earn a degree in the Simmons College master’s in business management program. Kathleen said that she benefited from both male and female mentors throughout her career and made it a priority to nurture the careers of the women who came after her, often hiring female attorneys to be on her team. One of the aspects she likes best about Big Sister Boston’s work is that it “gives girls the opportunity to see women being successful in the business world.” Kathleen says she wants girls to know that there are people out there who want the best for them, and those people are there to support them in working hard to achieve their goals.