‘Like family.’ Pines woman wins ‘big sister’ award from Broward charity giant
If you were to consider Pembroke Pines’ Selina Hightower a fairy godmother, you wouldn’t be far off.
Her Thursday, Jan. 29, afternoon schedule included telling a young, critically ill girl that her lifelong wish of going to Hawaii was approved.
A week before that, she was awarded for her outstanding mentorship while helping a 12-year-old girl cope with the painful loss of her grandfather.
But for her, it’s another day living out her life’s motto: “To whom much is given, much is required.”
“For me, service is service. I just do it,” Hightower, 53, told the Pembroke Pines News. “It’s within me. I’m not looking for accolades or attention.”
Hightower was lauded as the 2026 “best big” — an adult volunteer who provides one-on-one mentorship to local kids — by charity giant Big Brothers Big Sisters of Broward County during a Jan. 21 ceremony in Miramar.
By her side were pre-teen Maya Payoute, the “little” she was recognized for supporting, and the girl’s parents, who she says “have become like family to me.”
“(Being Maya’s mentor) makes me feel like I’m doing God’s work,” she said. “Like I was put on this earth to serve and to bring happiness to other people.”
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A lifetime of service, a mentor through grief
When glossing over her lengthy nonprofit resume — including the Make-A-Wish Foundation, a West Park senior support group and her own club for female profesisonals — Hightower dates her community service start to when she began her 24-year law enforcement career “kind of on accident.”
Looking to pay her way through community college in the early 1990s, she took a job as a community service aide handling non-emergency calls for the Hallandale Beach Police Department.
She trained to become a police officer, joining the Hollywood Police Department in 1998, where she oversaw the Public Affairs and Youth Services unit and served as the agency’s first African-American lieutenant until her retirement in 2022.
That’s when she met her first “little,” Hanniyah, while facilitating the launch of “Big in Blue” — BBBS’ collaboration with Hollywood police — in 2019.
“When I met Hanniyah, it was like I was seeing myself. We had so much in common,” Hightower said. “I’m like, ‘This little girl acts just like me.’ It was the perfect match.”
But after months of visiting the girl’s school for lunches and activities, the two became estranged when the COVID-19 pandemic pushed Hanniyah’s family to move out of South Florida.
With her first experience as a “big” still in her mind, she tried her hand at BBBS again after retiring in 2022 and met the Payoutes.
“The whole family just hit it off with her,” Brenda Payoute, Maya’s grandmother, told the Pembroke Pines News. “She’s such a beautiful person. We just hit it off with the perfect match.”
The big-little pair have become inseperable over the past three years of homework help sessions, weekly phone calls and twice-a-month outings to eat pizza or catch a movie, Hightower says.
But what keeps their bond tight-knit, she adds, is overcoming the often-unseen challenges that come with true mentorship.
“Recently, Maya lost her grandfather who raised her like a father,” said Hightower, choking up. “It’s been difficult having to feel the heartbreak that she’s going through ... but I’ve been able to connect them with different social services, counseling and all that.”
Hightower’s consistency, CEO of BBBS Malena Mendez says, has made all the difference for Maya.
“Maya obviously has gone through some significant challenges in the past year or two, and Selina’s just been a constant in her life and a huge support,” she told the Pembroke Pines News. “Through that support, Maya has really thrived.”
For the Payoutes, Hightower’s shared grief showed they weren’t alone.
“She sat in with the family and was there when (Maya’s) granddaddy passed away,” Mendez said. “She was giving all the condolences and was just like a family member when he was well, before he really got sick.”
‘Stand in that gap’
Per BBBS’ standard, Hightower and Maya’s pairing is long-term, but the 53-year-old says she plans to be by the girl’s side “for a lifetime.”
The nonprofit goes to great lengths to make matches conducive to deep relationship, says Mendez, who adds that the organization can take months to filter a big’s interests, background and areas of support they have experience in — such as sexual assault, divorced parents or bullying — to curate a pair that’s “more than just a superficial connection.”
Hightower — an only child herself — credits her earliest mentors, such as her mother, Carolyn, and veteran female officers of several local police departments for showing her the ropes of being a “big sister.”
Her hope is that those who consider themselves “blessed,” as she does, choose to be a blessing to others as well.
“There are hundreds of kids that are in need of a mentor. They need somebody to stand in that gap,” Hightower said. “You could be that little spark of hope and light to a child.”
This story was originally published January 30, 2026 at 2:19 PM.
