Match Moments

Bigs in School – Celebrating the End of the Year

Dellisa is a fourth grader in the Bigs in School program at Hall’s Cross Roads Elementary School in Aberdeen, MD.  Dellisa has been matched for one year and has created a very solid bond with her Big Sister.  “Wednesdays are my favorite day at school… that’s when I get to see my Big Sister,” Dellisa says.

Every Wednesday throughout the school year, 21 Bigs from Battelle (a global science and technology company in Aberdeen) visit with their Littles at the school. Bigs help their Littles with reading and math as well as activities aimed to improve the social and emotional well-being of the students. This year, the Bigs and Littles helped their community by making cards and ornaments for our troops overseas as well as holiday cards for local seniors in an assisted living facility. The children also got to visit their Bigs at work when Battelle hosted the Littles for a picnic, tour of the building, and an art contest.

On June 6th, the program celebrated the end of the school year with an ice cream party.  Matches at the party played relay games and made ice cream sundaes. A fun time was had by all, and the Bigs and Littles said goodbye to each other – but just for the summer!

A Fun Day at the Beach?!

Jay is an extra-special Big Brother and has two Littles, both 15 years old.  Jay and his two Littles, David and Michael, have been matched for several years.  Most of their outings involve camping, kayaking, fishing, or swimming.   On one particular outing, they spent the weekend on the Delaware shore, camping and kayaking.  When they got there, the boys asked to take the kayak out, and Jay watched from on shore after teaching them some new paddling techniques.

And then… as told by David…

“Everything was going well; we were getting some speed going against the waves, trying to get out just past the break point where Jay had told us, when we saw all these pointy arrow type fins bobbing in and out of the water. Sharks!! And a bunch of them! Like they were coming straight toward us! We felt like we were surrounded! We double-timed our paddling trying to get back into shore.

“But we're not paddling together and are pretty much going in circles.   Michael starts slapping the water to get the sharks away.  I look back at shore, and Jay is waving his arms.  I can't hear what he is saying. Michael starts yelling that these sharks are going to eat us right through the kayak!  I'm thinking, we just need to go back to the beach point.   Michael wants to put more space between him and the sharks so... he... STANDS UP!!  The kayak is tipping and I'm yelling for him to sit down! But by now, he can only hear his heart pounding. The kayak tips and into the water we both go. Now I'm panicked too! Now we're in the water with the sharks.

Then Jay appears at our sides laughing his head off and says… ‘They're dolphins!!’”