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My partner and I were one of the first couple matches in Alberta. We were matched with Matthew and had a very enjoyable match with him for several years. We watched him grow immensely, as his world changed for the better with each passing year. We were very proud of him, and his mother, who also took great strides to pull herself out of a downward spiraling life, and make positive changes for both of them. It was a very rewarding time for myself and my partner and, although she and I are no longer together, we both wonder how Matthew is doing, as he showed so much promise and was so excited for his future.
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Flight BBBS 2010
Our journey started out as a quiet drive the first time me and my Lil were together.We arrived at Stoney Creek Airport for the yearly Big Brother Big Sister flight in an Airplane. We got out of the vehicle and approached the Flight registration and waited in line to register for our flight together. It turned out that my Lil is afraid of airplanes and I thought that with a little education and assurance he might want to get on an Airplane. Well I was wrong he didn’t want to be convinced and I was not going to try. Instead we headed out to the grass and threw around the Big Brother Big Sister Frisbee our case worker had given us. After about an hour I suggested that we get a drink of water and in doing so we came across some pizza which was very delicious. After this we had discussed going to the War Plane Museum at Hamilton Airport so we went and had a short but fun visit it was well worth it. This brings me to my punch line. Not only is life stressful and time consuming but we are always doing things out of time restraint. I learnt from this gathering that it is nice to put the watch or cell phone away and do what someone else wants instead of what time insists we do. It was nice to connect with so many helping volunteers that day and most of all to connect to my Lil for the first time.
Thank you Big Brothers
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AJ
AJ is an active boy that did not have a father in his life. He was raised by a hardworking single mom of 2 with an elder son with learning disabilities and who did not have the time and energy that AJ needed for support. She signed him up for this great opportunity and everything worked out great and he was matched up right away with a positive male role model in the recreational program. Over time his match had to move out of province and the wait list for another male would be up to and probably over a year. His match asked his best friend to take on AJ and he did. We are very grateful for the Big Brothers that my son has had and hope to see more men out there sign up as last time I heard it was 40 women to 1 man ratio and these boys really need to see positive males.
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Tina and Katie
Katie and I were matched in the first part of 1999. I thought a 1 year commitment was going to be a challenge for me. It has been 11 years since Katie and I met, and although we are no longer 'Official' our relationship is stronger then ever.
We ended our official match in 2006, when Katie was 18. Those were the rules at the time because we were taking off traveling for 5 weeks together. When we came back we did a mini presentation at the BBBS AGM of our travels to Germany and Africa.
Katie is 22 now and is someone I can now turn to for advice. I had no idea 11 years ago how much I would get out of our friendship!! In fact, she just stood up for me at my wedding this past March.
Katie is a wonderful person and I am so happy to still have her in my life!
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I first met Andrew in 2006 at Tim Hortons in a big/little match meeting, and within less than an hour he had me at his school showing me paintings and other school work. Since then my wife and I have moved from Fort Mcmurray and we continue to have as much contact as we always did before. We have visits about 3 times a year,from our little staying with us for 2 weeks to coming for Christmas. He's been a huge impact in our lives and I know we've been the same for him. He's more than a little brother from BBBS, he's family and always will be.
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