{"id":5686,"date":"2014-02-26T15:18:34","date_gmt":"2014-02-26T20:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=5686"},"modified":"2014-03-12T14:37:40","modified_gmt":"2014-03-12T18:37:40","slug":"big-brothers-big-sisters-make-big-difference-through-bowling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/big-brothers-big-sisters-make-big-difference-through-bowling\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Brothers Big Sisters make big difference through bowling"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Skip MacLean knew he had made a connection when he and his young friend, Daniel, were walking and Daniel reached up to take his hand.<\/p>\n

Being a Big Brother was something the Pottageville resident had always had in the back of his mind. His kids had grown up, he had some spare time on his hands, and eventually something had to give.<\/p>\n

After taking the plunge, filling out his forms, and going through a year-long approval process, he had his first meeting with Daniel. \u201cIt is unbelievable,\u201d said Mr. MacLean of his Big Brothers experience. \u201cLike everything else, you are nervous at first if you are going to mesh together, but when we first met, I just felt a closeness and an affinity and we have just had a great time. I look forward to every Saturday and it is awesome.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was probably about our third visit [where he grabbed my hand]. I knew at that moment it wasn\u2019t me grabbing his hand, it was him grabbing mine and it was just great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Skip and Daniel put their connection in action at Gateway Caf\u00e9 and Lanes on Saturday afternoon for the annual Big Brothers Big Sisters of York (BBBSY) Bowl for Kids\u2019 Sake. The traditional fundraiser this year brought together groups and service clubs from across Aurora, including the Town of Aurora, three teams from MPP Frank Klees, as well as the Optimist Club and Rotary Club, among others. But this Big Brother and his Little Brother were not there just to bowl, they are also BBBSY\u2019s \u201cbowling ambassadors\u201d for Aurora.<\/p>\n

With friendly challenges between politicians, it was time to get down to business.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like to call them the Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure organization,\u201d said Mayor Geoffrey Dawe of BBBSY. \u201cThey are so important to the community and all the work that you do.\u201d<\/p>\n

BBBSY director Dean Smalley was also on hand to drive home the philosophy behind the organization. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t really realise what it is like not to have a father figure or mother figure in our lives,\u201d said Mr. Smalley. \u201cMy brother and I knew what it was like and these people make such a big difference in lives. The odds are these kids are the ones where, unfortunately, if they don\u2019t have these people in their lives, will go down the wrong path so easily.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith these mentors they go in the right direction and they are our teachers. My hat\u2019s off to the men and women who spend their valuable time and dedicate it to the kids.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Skip MacLean knew he had made a connection when he and his young friend, Daniel, were walking and Daniel reached up to take his hand.<\/p>\n

Being a Big Brother was something…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5654,"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":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/2014-02-27-09.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-1tI","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-17 10:41:08","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\/5686","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=5686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}