Finding community

Tonia Rice Witt survives crushing loss by giving back to her town.

After the deaths of her mother, father and both sets of grandparents, Tonia Rice Witt, the regional director of Big Brothers and Big Sisters, throws herself into helping others as a way to cope. Despite losing so much, she has found family in the work that she does. “My community is my life’s work,” she says, noting that family “doesn’t have to be blood.”