{"id":28989,"date":"2021-03-18T22:22:58","date_gmt":"2021-03-19T02:22:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=28989"},"modified":"2021-03-18T22:23:01","modified_gmt":"2021-03-19T02:23:01","slug":"get-up-to-speed-for-youth-mentorship-with-move-for-kids-sake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/get-up-to-speed-for-youth-mentorship-with-move-for-kids-sake\/","title":{"rendered":"Get up to speed for youth mentorship with Move for Kids\u2019 Sake"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There is practically no limit to the number of ways you can stay active. You\u2019ve probably already set aside some time during our days at home to get the blood pumping in one way or another. So, why not get the blood pumping in whatever way you can to support youth in the community?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s the aim of Big Brothers Big Sisters of York with their Move For Kids\u2019 Sake, a virtual event which is taking the place of the organization\u2019s popular Bowl for Kids\u2019 Sake fundraiser.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On now through March 31, Move for Kids\u2019 Sake encourages people to stay active and have fun, all the while raising money for much-needed mentorship programs for youth across York Region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn response to COVID-19, we had to transition our signature Bowl for Kids\u2019 Sake event into a different type of virtual fundraiser and we really wanted to focus on the aspects around mental health and how we can get our participants engaged in a fundraiser that not only, yes, raises funds for our programs but will also support their mental health by physical activity,\u201d says Suzanne Boucher, Fundraising and Events Coordinator for Big Brothers Big Sisters of York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have had such great feedback so far. We\u2019re in our third week right now of this virtual campaign and everyone is having such a good time. We have people doing push-ups all the way up to snow shoeing. We have people who even decided to do a hot wings-eating challenge. It\u2019s all over the place and [as of Thursday, March 11] we\u2019re almost at $13,000 raised, which is incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a goal of raising $25,000 to help facilitate programs matching boys and girls in the community \u2013 \u201clittles\u201d \u2013 with older mentors \u2013 \u201cbigs\u201d \u2013 they are well on the way to crossing the finish line. But however successful they have been so far, the money they have been able to bring in pales in comparison to their bowling event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCompared to Bowl for Kids\u2019 Sake, we are really down with numbers at this time,\u201d says Ms. Boucher. \u201cAt this time, we would have 500 \u2013 600 bowlers signed up and for Move for Kids\u2019 Sake, right now we have 44 participants. That is a huge difference, but we\u2019re still trying to get people engaged.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Underscoring the importance of these fundraising endeavours is the increased demand for virtual programs stemming from the global pandemic. Over the holiday season, for instance, Big Brothers Big Sisters of York (BBBSY) reached out to virtual learning programs throughout York Region on their Go Girls program, a group mentoring program for young women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After holding a virtual Go Girls session, uptake was significant and from these pre-winter holiday engagement sessions to coming back to the office after the New Year, BBBSY saw 600 families sign up for the initiative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat is more than what we usually serve in a year, so the need is great right now, especially because of the isolation that our children are experiencing right now,\u201d says Ms. Boucher. \u201cJust seeing that number shocked us and that is why we had to get going with Move for Kids\u2019 Sake, trying to get more funds because, at the moment, we don\u2019t even have enough volunteers to serve those children. We want to use this event as awareness to raise funds so we can keep these programs going and also have the awareness that we still do need volunteers as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not too late to sign up for the Move for Kids\u2019 Sake challenge and collect pledges, nor is it too late to head over to the BBBSY website to pledge your support for an already registered individual team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every little bit goes a long way, says the organization, and each dollar will go towards programs that will improve youth mental health across the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have a virtual swag bag where we have some local organizations and businesses here in York Region that are donating their services so we have a personal trainer on board who is donating a personal training class, we have a yoga company that has generously donated an online virtual yoga class for all of our participants. We have weekly contests going on and a raffle where\u2026for every $100 that is raised, you get a raffle ticket for your chance to win some exciting prizes. There\u2019s still lots going on and we are really excited to hit that goal for this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf someone doesn\u2019t have the time to participate, we\u2019re really encouraging people to just sponsor or donate to teams that are already signed up. We have a couple of former bigs and former littles that are signed up. If they want to go in and support them in their journey right now, we\u2019re really trying to push that across as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To do just that, or to sign up for Move for Kids\u2019 Sake, visit york.bigbrothersbigsisters.ca\/event\/moveforkidssake<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

There is practically no limit to the number of ways you can stay active. You\u2019ve probably already set aside some time during our days at home to get the blood pumping in one way or another. So, why not get the blood pumping in whatever way you can to support youth in the community? That\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":28962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_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}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/2021-03-18-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-7xz","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-18 05:08:18","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\/28989","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=28989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}