Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Fraser Valley
200 - 2445 West Railway St. V2S 2E3 Abbotsford, BC, Canada

We're going to make #nationalchildday2020 last a lot longer than one day! Our little elves are busy putting together some comfort kits for some of our Littles thanks to a very kind donation from Enbridge Gas !

We made the very difficult decision to temporarily suspend all in person activities (until November 23rd) in order to follow the recommendations by our Provincial Health Officer. We will continue to support children and youth through virtual activities and encourage our amazing mentors to stay connected by phone or online. We are asking you to do what you can to help flatten the curve because kids are counting on all of us! So many are struggling through this pandemic and h...aving their mentor support them is crucial. Please do what you can. The people of B.C. have been the examples of ‘what to do right,’ of how to support friends and neighbours in our communities and take care of those in need. Let’s continue to be leaders to push our curve back down and protect our loved ones, our Elders and our communities. (Joint statement by Dr. Bonnie Henry and Minister Adrien Dix).

Thanks to Otter Co-op we will be giving our office a fresh look soon! Here's our Executive Director and Brandon Kosciuk, Co-op Hardware Manager with all the paint supplied! We'll be posting our progress!

Here's Cassie accepting a big box of caring from Staples Abbotsford ! Staples encouraged their customers and staff to give back to help families with school supplies! These gift cards will help families with costs. We look forward to paying this forward to the families we work with soon!

You're invited to a virtual Youth in Office event! Are you a youth mentor or mentee interested in politics? Our annual #YouthInOffice event is going virtual. Ou...r National Youth Mentoring Advisory Council is organizing conversations with Members of Parliament and Senators to discuss issues impacting youth. Click the link to learn more and to register for the first panel discussion on November 24th: http://ow.ly/2vqe50CniPV See more

Remember these tips from our friends at BC Centre for Disease Control: Spook-tacular safety tips for trick-or-treaters Stay bright: Wear bright colours and/or utilize reflective tape, buttons and lights for costumes... Clean hands frequently: Wash your hands before and after going trick-or-treating. Keep hand sanitizer with you if eating treats on the go. You don’t need to clean every treat. Check candy: Check the treats first and be wary of unsealed or broken wrappers. When in doubt, throw it out. Don’t crowd: Leave space between you and other groups. Be patient and wait for other groups to finish before taking your turn. Donate some of your extra candy to us! (okay we added that one)

We had some fun this year with our annual report with our Dr. Seuss theme! It's a bit late in coming out but better late than never.... "How did it get so late so soon? It's night before it's afternoon. December is here (almost!) before it's June.... My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?" (Dr. Seuss) See more

Each year we also recognize a corporate partner who contributes to and encourages volunteerism. Our 2019 Corporate Partner is SEVENOAKS SHOPPING CENTRE Sevenoaks Shopping Centre has supported our work through the annual #beyou event, and chose us as their charity in 2017, 2018 and 2019 for the Trees of Hope event. They also hosted our Match Christmas Party for 2 years in the beautiful Merry & Bright space! ... Here's our friend Melissa Oren showing off their award! Thank you SEVENOAKS SHOPPING CENTRE for all you have done and continue to do to #ignitepotential

We often get asked how our community based matches managed to stay connected during the strict social distancing guidelines earlier this year. We are so excited to finally share what we’ve been up to: It was on a warm evening in June that a rag tag group of misfits were drawn together to embark on an epic adventure. There was a human fighter named Trash Can, a dwarf barbarian named Sir Tozz, 2 dwarf clerics (Sir Marshmallow Fun Swirl and Dillon) a rogue named Gina Mc Sassy ...Pants, an elven wizard named Freya, and of course the grand master of their fate the dungeon master (AKA Practicum Student Joel). After the first battle, where our eclectic group were victorious in conquering a band of goblins, they gathered around the warmth of the campfire to get to know one another. The two Clerics decided to capture and tame one of goblins and lovingly named him Boblin the Goblin. Boblin became a Paladin and joined the party. They shared back stories and bonded that first night around the campfire. This band of misfits gathered every Thursday evening for 3 months battling ogres, goblins, dire wolves, and giants. At the end of 3 months the group became a family that adopted the name the Royal Misfits. Joel explains: Working with BBBS as a practicum student, I had the chance to try and bring something new to the virtual table during Covid-19. As we were looking for activities to do with some of the kids in order to pull them out of isolation, I thought I could try my hand at running a small Pathfinder game, which is a tabletop RPG similar to Dungeons and Dragons. What started as a one-shot turned into a few games, and eventually, we had our own little campaign that we met for online every week. It was great to see the matches at work, where in one case, the Big Sister helped her Little with the rules, while in the other match, the Little was the one to help out the Big. It also allowed the kids to step into different roles and be creative with their play as they developed stories for their characters and used creative problem solving to get through obstacles. The nature of the game also made it easy for relationships to form quickly, since everyone role-played as adventurers who needed to work together in order to survive. Within the first session, the Littles were already teasing each other, joking around and building off of each other’s energy, and they haven’t calmed down yet! I feel like this game really brought us together even through the social distancing since, even though we met virtually, we all created and participated in a story that not only has yet to be over, but that we will also remember for years to come. (the group finally got to meet in person months later for this amazing group photo!) See more