LAS CRUCES, N.M. -- Stacie Christiano can easily sum up their mission at Big Brothers and Big Sisters

“An investment in the future by giving a young child an adult mentor to help instill the right work ethics and make the right choices in life,” said Christiano.

But now because of a lack of volunteers, Christiano has 48 kids on the waiting list, but she will be the first to admit there will probably always be a waiting list. She says there are too main concerns with her current waiting list.

“We have a lot of little boys no male volunteers and a lot of female volunteers and no little girls,” said Christiano.

Right now of the 48 kids on the waiting list 36 of them are boys and of the 19 volunteer only three of them are men.

“We've got little boys that call us on a daily basis 'where's my big brother?' Or 'I need a friend.' Or 'who wants to play basketball with me?'” said Christiano.

The other concern for the Big Brothers Big Sisters is that they try hard to remove kids off of the waiting list within 90 days, but some of these boys have been on there for a year.

“It's heartbreaking these are children that are vulnerable and these are children that just want someone in their life to talk to or have fun with,” said Christiano.