Big Brothers Big Sisters Dream Home Lottery

0:00BGC big brothers big sisters of Edmonton and areas played such a vital role to children in youth and our area for years now and the goal of the organization is to create those meaningful opportunities for young people to thrive and develop that confidence and skills for life. Over 4,500 children are currently part of the program and to help sustain itself, the organization runs an annual lottery that happens to be going on right now. You have until April 30th to get your tickets and help build that win 50 jackpot that is already inching toward the million dollar mark. So to talk more about the organization and this year's lottery, I'm happy to have Daniel Edwards join me. He's the fund development manager at BGC big brothers big sisters of Edmonton and area. Daniel, thanks so much for being here. Brad, thank you for having me on. Yeah, it's a pleasure. So tell us about yourself, Daniel, how long have you been involved with BGC? I started working for BGC BGC in 2015, so I've been here for just over 11 years at this point. And what stood out to you the most over

1:03the years? Daniel, I'm sure it has a lot to do with the connections made between the kids and the BGC. Oh, absolutely. So I've had the pleasure of holding many positions in the agency. Some of my favorites were working directly with children in youth, whether that be in our BGC sites across across the city and also in our mentoring programs in our schools and in our communities. It's it's really fantastic to see the connections and the relationships that you know these young people form with these positive adult role models. And it really is those you know those positive adult role models you talk about the volunteers who are crucial to the sustainability, right? I mean, I was taking a look at the website and it says you currently have 2000 volunteers registered. Yes, yes, we have a ton of volunteers and you know, truthfully speaking, and we couldn't do what we do without the you know the support from the numerous volunteers across a variety of programs that we offer. Talk to us about the process,

2:06Daniel, connecting the volunteers with the kids, making sure it's a right fit and what they get up to. Oh gosh, yeah, so you know all of our staff that oversee our mentoring matches are so intentional in how they match you know volunteers to potential mentees. So we look for things like you know shared interest, shared culture, the thought and the intention behind the matching process usually takes the most amount of time for our staff and they put a lot of thought into what's going to be a you know a really positive and beneficial match and then they continue checking in with the match throughout their entirety just to make sure things are running smoothly and everybody's having a good time. And it's when that you know that relationship is fostered and thrives like you mentioned, right? And you do those check-ins and all you hear is the positive outcomes. That's exactly what you want to hear. So what do they do when they're together? What sort of activities

3:09do they do? How much time do they they spend together on a weekly or a monthly basis? Yeah, so it kind of varies from program to program. I think kind of like our flagship, our big brothers, big sisters program, those matches they will actually meet out in the community. So they'll do things like you know go to an outdoor ranking, go skating, they can go to kind of low not expensive events like you know festivals and you know k-days and all those good things in the summertime. It really varies like I said we also have other programs such as our in-school mentoring programs and those are kind of like our mentoring matches that occur in schools during the school day and I know that those matches they focus very heavily on you know academics and social emotional building but also leave a lot of room for you know recreation going outside and just playing on the playground or just kind of sitting and talking about their day or their week. And this can you know extend beyond the work being done just with you folks at Biggs and by that I mean I was

4:11looking at the the website and you hear stories about you know these relationships being fostered when a kid is only 78 years old and as they grow up they stay in contact with that person years later just because that it turned into something so great. Oh absolutely yes um you know it's it's a pleasure to you know we have a little piece in this in the in the mentoring matches that these these lovely volunteers and youth and children and youth participate in but yeah absolutely so when they you know when they get older or for heaven forbid if their match has to end you know the child moves away the volunteer moves away um it's so great to see that that relationship can continue outside of our agency um and it's just a true testament to you know the impacts that those relationships have on on everybody not only the mentees but also the volunteers as well. Okay to the lottery uh this is an annual one for you guys it's a big one tell us all about it. Yeah so this is what uh you know our largest fundraising event throughout the year um we are celebrating our 46th dream home this this year um I know I mentioned I heard you

5:18mentioned at the beginning we have about 30 days left in this campaign so including today 30 days to buy your tickets um with a chance to win a beautiful 1.1 million dollar home um or a million dollars grand prize um we are a little bit um you know a little bit behind where we want to be right now so um you know really really kind of leaning on you know the province of Alberta and them into an area to really uh you know continue their support like they've been doing for for many many years prior to that. Well we'll get you there Daniel absolutely and I mean I was looking at the ticket packages as well some pretty good deals from what I can see. Oh absolutely yes so tickets started lowest 30 dollars um but you know we have numerous amounts of bundles um and packages that you can you know you can choose from on our website. And uh what will the proceeds go to on your guys and uh how does that help out the organization in the long run? Oh my gosh so all of those proceeds go you know directly to supporting our afterschool programs and our mentoring

6:21programs um so you know like I said those programs help to um you know help us to ensure that we have enough volunteers to come in and meet all of the you know the demands of the schools and the communities a lot of the funds will go to our afterschool programs our BGC sites our six BGC sites across Edmonton and our five uh kind of a little school time club sites within schools kind of in the central Edmonton region all those funds go to help delivering you know really beneficial programs for um for children and youth and young people. Awesome uh Daniel before I let you go remind people where they can go to get these tickets. Absolutely so I think the easiest way you can go and get that information is on our big brothers dreamhome.org website um and there where you can purchase tickets um you can purchase them right through our website they also have a phone number um to call if you want to you know alternative ways of getting tickets. Fantastic stuff Daniel thanks so much for uh carving out some time for us this afternoon I appreciate it.

7:24Oh I think we lost uh Daniel's connection uh I really enjoyed that conversation with Daniel Edwards who is the fund development manager at BGC Big Brother Big Sisters of Edmonton and area talking about all the great work that uh that organization does in Edmonton and uh the surrounding area and yeah they have their lottery coming up 30 days left to buy your tickets and like you mentioned I mean a 1.1 million dollar dreamhome solid or close to a million dollars cash it's a win-win situation