By Taylor Chartrand

Big Brothers, Big Sisters looking to match kids for the holidays

Dec 14, 2018 | 11:56 AM

Medicine Hat, AB – Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Medicine Hat has a little bit of an issue on their hands.

Mentoring Coordinator Melissa Pearl says they have 19 kids on their waiting list looking to be matched with potential big’s from the community.

“We have eight girls and eleven boys ranging from age six to fourteen for both,” Pearl explained. “We’re hoping we can get some community members to step up and become big’s to help support these little’s in our community.”

Unfortunately, Pearl says some of these children have been searching for a match for quite some time.

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“Right now, we have some kids that have been on the wait list for about a year and a half,” says Pearl. “So, we try our hardest to match the big and the little with similar personalities and similar interests.”

Pearl says it would mean the world to these kids to be matched heading into the holiday season.

“For our kiddos that have been on the wait list for a long time it would be like a Christmas present for them. Super happy, they would love it.”

With the Christmas break coming up, Pearl says now would be the perfect time for big’s to arise from the community.

“The kids are off school for roughly the next two and a half weeks. It would be a good time to get some matches going and get them out in the community doing some things together.”

Pearl says they ask for a one year commitment and within that time, you’d need to spend a couple hours a week with your child.

“You can do two hours a week and it’s not expensive. We don’t expect our big’s to be forking out a ton of money to do activities. You can do things like public skating in the winter and kicking around a soccer ball around in the summer. We just want to keep the activities low cost and as free as possible.”

And it doesn’t take much to become a big.

“We just have an application process and then we sit down and talk to them. After that, we do training with the big and the little just so everyone understands the program.”

Although it doesn’t seem like a lot, Pearl says this program could positively impact the little for the rest of their life.

“Most people don’t realize what a difference they’re making on the child’s life. It’s just a good relationship building exercise for both the big and the little.”