Recently, in large part due to a grant from Bank of America, Big Brothers Big Sisters Ottawa (BBBSO) launched Big Bunch, a group mentoring program for children who are waiting to be matched with their very own Big Brother.  This format allows children who have been waiting for some time to be matched with a volunteer mentor in small groups for a six month period.  Meet Chris Rose, a Big in this program and intern student with BBBSO who was instrumental in helping Sue Hall, Group Programs Coordinator, build this new program.  Read below as he talks about the first meeting. 

"On the evening of Tuesday January 20^th the Big Bunch, the newest group mentoring program from BBBSO met for the first time.  As a first time Big and someone who hasn't been a 9 to 11 year old for a while I was excited and a little bit nervous because I didn't know what to expect.  I figured they'd like to run around, play games and be full of energy.  At first the Littles seemed very quiet and shy, but after the introductions and the first game of tag began they sprung to life and my initial expectation turned out to be truer than I expected.  Anyone who has played with kids at this age knows they're tough to keep up with.  Now imagine 7 of them at once.  Luckily I wasn't alone.  I had three other Bigs to help me direct the Littles enthusiasm towards the game at hand.

My initial plan to go with games of low organization like tag, variations of dodgeball, pinball, etc, got side tracked when the majority of Littles voted that they'd rather play touch football.  Unfortunately after not too many downs we realized that touch football doesn't translate well to indoor gyms, so we moved onto the next game.  Doctor dodgeball worked much better.  In fact the Littles chosen to be the doctors were so good at dodging incoming balls that neither team could win.  After declaring a tie, we moved into free play until it was time to go.  Some Littles chose to play soccer or basketball, while other decided to organize another game of tag.

Overall I consider the first meeting of the Big Bunch a success, although it didn't go off without a hitch.  The Bigs and Littles met each other and had fun.  I relearned what its like to be kid at this age and the group's dynamics.  I learned that some games work well, and others not as much.  I also learned that if you're "it" in a game of tag its best to go after the other Bigs because the Littles are too quick and too good at sneaking into home free.  So I'll take what I learned to the next Big Bunch session, on February 3^rd, where we'll have some guests come in to teach us a little more about soccer and meet the remaining Big and Littles that couldn't make it to our inaugural meeting."