Looking for a meaningful way to give back to the community this month, spend fun, quality time with your classmates, AND have an opportunity to win prizes like Live Nation concert tickets and a year supply of TastyKakes? Consider supporting Big Brothers Big Sisters Independence Region through their Go Big or Go Home campaign.
Big Brothers Big Sisters provides children facing adversity with strong and enduring, professionally supported one-to-one mentoring relationships that change their lives for the better, forever. Their Go Big or Go Home campaign aims to raise awareness and funds to remove children from their long waiting list and match them with mentors.
I’m Jenna Lee, a Temple University junior (Go Owls!), Big Sister, and President of the Temple University Student Board for Big Brothers Big Sisters Independence Region. I am participating in this campaign because the relationship I have with my Little is so important to me, and I know that through fundraising, I will help by giving other college students the opportunity to have a meaningful relationship with a mentee of their own.
For three years, I’ve been matched to my Little, and I can confidently say that the experience with her has been one of the best throughout my time at Temple. I remember the first day we met and how she wasn’t ready to open up to me, but now our relationship has developed into something I never would have imagined.
An incredible experience we had together was being selected by Big Brothers Big Sisters and celebrity, Michael B. Jordan, through a partnership with Warner Bros. to win a special day together of our choosing. We chose to visit The American Girl Doll store in NYC, which has become my favorite memory with my Little. On the train ride to the city, we were having a casual conversation, and she told me she felt so lucky to have me as a Big Sister, and that even though we met through the program, she felt like I was actually her real Big Sister! This moment was so important to me because it proved just how meaningful it is for me to take one hour a week to go and see her.
The impact I have on her life is as great as the impact she has on mine. I made the decision to fundraise for the Go Big or Go Home campaign because I want more college students to feel the satisfaction and love I get from seeing my Little.
I encourage you to learn more about the campaign, form a team online with a group of friends, fundraise for a few weeks, and join me and dozens of other college students from the Philadelphia area at the culminating bowling tournament on April 3rd. You’ll help Big Brothers Big Sisters match kids on their long waiting list with their own mentor, and you’ll have the chance to win great prizes like Urban Outfitters gift cards, an iPad, or Saxbys Coffee gift cards.