Ray Yelle cooks up some hot dogs during the Big Brothers Big Sisters Walk for Kids Sake Sunday. Photo by Tommy Wong.
September is Big Brothers Big Sisters month and people are doing their part in helping raise money and awareness for the cause. Many showed up to the waterfront on Sunday for the first annual Walk For Kids Sake'' two, and five kilometre walk.
Darlene Jamieson is the executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters for the North Bay and District, and she has seen just how great an impact their program can have on someone.
Years ago, an elderly woman volunteered to be a Big Sister and she changed a young girl's life.
“She said to me, 'maybe I'm too old to be a Big Sister', she was 60 years old at the time,” recalls Jamieson, who has been working with Big Brothers Big Sister for over 14 years.
“We said absolutely not, you're not too old to be a Big Sister. So she became a Big Sister to a young lady and their match was absolutely fantastic. She went above and beyond and even so far as doing something we wouldn't normally recommend. But this woman had the means to put away a college fund for her little sister. The young lady went off to college and she's now working in business and doing very well.”
Nicole Smith was one of the participants in the walk and she has also seen the positive affect the program can have on people.
“I have a few children whom I've worked with in the past that are members of the Big Brothers and Big Sisters,” said Smith who works in child care.
“And seeing them and seeing the difference that this program has made, it's great. You see the children get more of a sense of a bigger family and they feel like they're a part of something. They start to feel like there's somebody that they can rely on and always count on. Seeing the children and the impact that the volunteers have, making them feel like they belong and that they have somebody there, it makes a whole difference for a child.”
After the walk was done, participants were given their fair share of hot dogs and warm tea. The goal of the walk was to raise $10,000 and prior the walk, over $3,000 was already raised through online donations.
To find out more about the Big Brother Big Sisters program and how you can help, you can visit the website here.
