This week, we will celebrate the impact our Volunteer Mentors have on the children and youth in the Guelph community. Our Mentors remain a consistent presence in the lives of the Littles they serve and have a positive impact on their future. We are so grateful for all of our Mentors and are excited to celebrate them throughout the week.
“It’s so hard to choose one memory because I keep learning so much about my Little. One of my favourite memories was when we went horseback riding. She was so excited to get outside in the peace and quiet. I could see her beaming with confidence! Even when my horse got spooked, she wanted to make sure I was okay. I feel so fortunate for each experience we have together!”
“It is so rewarding to watch my mentee become more comfortable with our relationship and put her trust in me. She has grown from being quite shy and unsure to feeling secure and bringing me into her inner circle.”
“My favourite memory with my little was the first time she shared talking to someone in her class. The next time we got together she casually said “my friend and I played at recess today”. My little is very reserved and shy, so it was awesome to hear her mention that she made not one, but two friends in the span of a week!”
“Getting to see the confidence and self worth grow within my mentee while watching them come into their true self is something so very valuable. It’s amazing the amount of positive change I have seen my little go through during our time together. They are even beginning to look into post secondary options and continue to explore the world around them!”
“There’s so many great memories to chose from. From carving his first pumpkin to guelph storm games and many many smash brawl and chess matches. But frankly my favourite part is the bond and the friendship my little and I have built over the past year and it’s such a pleasure watching him grow as a person.”
“We recently had a fancy tea party visit where we baked cookies from scratch, got out the good china to set the table, and wore sparkly accessories to set the fancy mood. We also snuck in a wild dance party while we waited for the tea to brew. So much fun! My Little had never baked from scratch before and it was a great way to practice kitchen skills – we baked the same cookies again the next week at her request and we were like a well-oiled machine with the measuring and mixing.”
‘My Little introduced me to a computer game he liked playing [Supreme Duelist]. When I was young, my family played a lot of board games, so one Saturday I suggested we make a board game based on the computer game. He loved it, and was soon spurting out creative ways to incorporate the fun aspects of Supreme Duelist into our board game. We used card board, paper and pencil crayons to make the board and playing cards, used some spare pieces as Player pieces, and decided to use a deck of playing cards in lieu of dice to make it a bit more unique and have a “draw” action. He and I had a lot of fun choosing what weapons to draw into our playing cards, rank them in value, and, perhaps most of all, the planning and gameplay design. It’s been 2 years since, and not only do we still play, we’ve played with family and he’s been able to show off his skills as a creator. There are even days he’ll think of cool new ways to update the game – but more often than not we’re having too much fun playing to make the changes!”
“One day my Little Sister and I were grocery shopping for ingredients to make dinner together, and we ran into a former University classmate of mine. My classmate and I were both mature students in the program, and we graduated last year. While we were catching up, I introduced my Little Sister, and that’s when my friend told me that she used to be a Little Sister – over 45 years ago! She told us that she and her Big Sister are still great friends and that they get together a couple times a month. My Little Sister was so surprised. We looked at each other and agreed that that was now one of our #matchgoals!”
