Ensign, Little Brother at side, promotes benefits of program

Benjamin Grove

Thursday, June 9, 2005 | 8:24 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Basketball games between Sen. John Ensign and 17-year-old Donzale Butler are more competitive now that they are closer in height.

"He's coming up," Ensign said of the teen he has mentored for more than eight years as part of the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. "He packed my shot for the first time last year. That was pretty exciting."

Butler's mother signed him up for the program when his father was in prison, hoping he would be matched with a mentor who would help keep him out of trouble.

In their first meeting, Ensign and Donzale, then 9, went to the library. Since then they have spent countless hours together, often playing sports, including basketball, tennis and golf, Ensign said.

As often happens in the 101-year-old national mentoring program, Ensign and Butler, who will be a high school senior, have remained close well beyond the program's one-year commitment.

The Big Brothers Big Sisters program paid to fly Butler to Washington so he and Ensign could appear together at a Capitol Hill press conference on Tuesday. Program officers announced their aim to increase current mentor numbers from 225,000 to 1 million by 2010.

At times Butler has worried that his actions would disappoint Ensign, the senator said in an interview, as the soft-spoken teen nodded in agreement. But Ensign has tried to teach him commitment.

"I told him that, 'No matter what, I'm in your life -- for your life. We're together for life, get used to it,' " Ensign said.

Ensign and Butler have talked over many issues over the years, from school to girls and drugs, but rarely politics, which doesn't interest the teen. When asked what Ensign had taught him over the years, Butler said, "respect," including respect for his parents.

Lately Ensign and Butler have talked about a possible career for Butler, who said he might join the Navy.

"I like the discipline," Butler said.

Ensign's three young children look up to Butler, and Butler considers himself a big brother figure to them, he said.

"He's a member of our family," Ensign said.

Ensign drew criticism from Democrats in 1998 when he featured Donzale's mother in a political commercial, not long after Ensign and her son were paired. In 1997 Democrats had criticized Ensign for saying that out-of-wedlock births "need to be somewhat stigmatized" in order to decrease their numbers.

Ensign was raised by a single mother for part of his youth before she married casino executive Mike Ensign. The senator on Tuesday said he had long sought to find a way to offer someone else the guidance he got from his adoptive father.

He said he had finally decided to join Big Brothers, despite the rigors of Congress and campaigning.

"The average American watches five hours of television a day, and yet they don't have time to give to a young person. If people will just do it, it is rewarding."