{"id":25735,"date":"2020-01-23T18:40:37","date_gmt":"2020-01-23T23:40:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=25735"},"modified":"2020-01-23T18:40:45","modified_gmt":"2020-01-23T23:40:45","slug":"big-brothers-big-sisters-looks-for-50-ways-to-make-a-difference-on-golden-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/big-brothers-big-sisters-looks-for-50-ways-to-make-a-difference-on-golden-anniversary\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Brothers Big Sisters looks for 50 ways to make a difference on Golden Anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Fifty new donors, fifty new sponsors, fifty new groups\nengaged in what they do \u2013 as they embark on their fiftieth anniversary year,\nBig Brothers Big Sisters of York is looking for fifty ways to make a\ndifference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big Brothers Big Sisters of York, which is celebrating\nits Golden Anniversary in 2020, is encouraging people to get involved and, to\nborrow their theme for the year, help them \u201cGo for the Gold.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ahead of their milestone, Big Brothers Big Sisters\nlaunched their renewed mission to \u201cenable life-changing mentoring relationships\nand to ignite the power and potential of young people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a simple yet bold statement, but one that requires\na buy-in from the community to make it a reality, and the first opportunity the\npublic can show their support this year is by dusting off their bowling shoes\nfor Bowl for Kids\u2019 Sake, presented by A&B Courier, which is set to launch\nthis March with the first Bowl event taking place on Saturday, March 7 in\nRichmond Hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With further dates set in Bradford on Sunday, March 8 and\nNewmarket on Saturday, March 28, it is one of Big Brothers Big Sisters of\nYork\u2019s (BBBSY) biggest annual fundraisers, but one which has taken a financial\nhit in recent years due to dwindling numbers of bowling alleys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople sometimes forget how fun bowling is,\u201d says BBBSY\nExecutive Director Sarah Dame. \u201cNot too long ago, Bowl for Kids\u2019 Sake used to\nraise over $200,000, but now it is closer to $60,000. We\u2019ve lost a lot of\nbowling alleys, we understand that, and we understand there are just so many\namazing causes to support \u2013 and we want to support them all \u2013 but we know that\nwithout this kind of mentorship program in York Region there would be some\nsignificant losses to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the lead up to March, BBBSY is issuing a challenge for\nbusinesses and groups to come forward and field teams, as well as take on the\nmantle of being community ambassadors to challenge others, to make this year\u2019s\nBowl for Kids\u2019 Sake series a huge success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going hard,\u201d says Suzanne Boucher, Fundraising and\nEvents Coordinator for BBBSY. \u201cOur theme this year is Go for the Gold and we\u2019re\ngoing to ask people to dress up for a fun event. This year will be even bigger\nwith more prizes, bigger raffle items, and we\u2019re really going to go out in the\ncommunity to push the message that this is our anniversary year and we\u2019re\nlooking for a lot more support. At all of our events, we\u2019re trying to show how\ncritical these mentoring relationships are. They are not just these fun\nfriendships that people picture, but they are critical relationships. We want\neveryone to understand what they are supporting, how critical it is, and how\nmuch them coming out to bowl on a weekend is helping these relationships grow,\nespecially for young people who are experiencing adversity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to Bowl for Kids\u2019 Sake, BBBSY will be taking\nthis message to the links, spearheading Golf For Kids\u2019 Sake golf tournament,\nset for Thursday, March 21, at King\u2019s Riding Golf Course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A returning favourite, this is an event currently looking\nfor a sponsor \u2013 and, in this need, is an opportunity, says Ms. Dame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are seeking a really innovative sponsorship for Golf\nfor Kids Sake who wants to be a big part of this and can really help drive some\nof the fundraising behind this,\u201d she says. \u201cIf we have volunteers and dollars,\nwe can run programming, but volunteers are getting harder, so we need to be\nreally intentional about how we can recruit, how we can bring mentors in and\nhow we educate them too about the difference they are making. We are quite a\nbit smaller as an organization than we were a year ago, but we\u2019re still serving\n500 children in the community. The team did an amazing job in 2019, but we are\na smaller agency for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want to get donors involved as opposed to funders. We\nthink our community members who are our donors need to really get engaged and\nfeel part of building a strong community and not be afraid to get involved.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How you become involved is, essentially up to you. In\naddition to Bowl for Kids\u2019 Sake and Golf for Kids\u2019 Sake, BBBSY welcomes any\nindividual or group who has an idea for a third-party fundraiser. Ms. Boucher\nsays it can be anything from a family backyard barbecue to a yard sale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnyone can reach out,\u201d says Ms. Boucher, noting BBBSY\nprovides an online kit for anyone with a third-party fundraising idea. \u201cWe\nwould love to be a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adds Ms. Dame: \u201cIt would be nice to have 50 third-party\nfundraisers, fifty new sponsors, fifty new donors. Let\u2019s be honest, we have a\nsmaller budget, but we want to be more sustainable. We want to be here. We want\nour programming here in York Region and we need our community to be behind that\nand support that. We\u2019re trying to be innovative; we\u2019re trying to be bolder, and\nwe want to be bigger. I think that, together, we are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more on Big Brothers Big Sisters of York, visit york.bigbrothersbigsisters.ca.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fifty new donors, fifty new sponsors, fifty new groups engaged in what they do \u2013 as they embark on their fiftieth anniversary year, Big Brothers Big Sisters of York is looking for fifty ways to make a difference. Big Brothers Big Sisters of York, which is celebrating its Golden Anniversary in 2020, is encouraging people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6H5","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-17 22:55:44","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25735\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}