Big Brothers Big Sisters celebrates Bigs and Littles of mid Maine

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Mid-Maine hosted Bigs, Littles and their families at its Annual Program Celebration Jan. 28 at Bangor Boys & Girls Club. Matches from Androscoggin, Kennebec, Knox, Lincoln, Penobscot, Somerset and Waldo counties participated in Winter Carnival events featuring games, refreshments, an indoor bounce house and an awards ceremony that recognized distinguished community and site-based matches and volunteer coordinators.

The program helps children facing adversity by providing professionally supported, one-to-one mentoring programs throughout its seven-county service area.

The program recognized the following 2017 award recipients:

Never Miss Life Award, named in memory of Little Sister Jessica Breault, was awarded to Gilliad Munden and Austyn Wilmot, of Knox County.

Community-Based Match of the Year Awards went to Jaclyn Stratton and Alana Fancy, and Tabitha Fillion and Ally Beeman, both from Knox County.

School-Based Match of the Year Awards were given to Sydney Costa and Trystan Mitchell, of Penobscot County, Marlys Rietdyk and Kyle Van Doren Crooker, of Kennebec County, and Kaitlyn Woods and Kalona Sanborn, of Penobscot County.

School-Based Coordinator of the Year Award recipients were Ian Palmer and Keith Marino, of the Bangor Boys & Girls Club.

Twenty-seven community and school-based matches were celebrated for reaching anniversary milestones and being matched between three and 10 years through Big Brothers Big Sisters.

The event was sponsored by BBBS community partners at Bangor Boys & Girls Club, Pizza Hut, Dominos, Shaw’s Supermarket, Bangor Mall Cinemas 10, Midcoast Recreation Center and Camden National Bank with activity donations from Great Salt Bay School in Damariscotta and Mount Merici Academy in Waterville.

For more information, call Monica Charette at 314-6996.