Big Sister, Maggie Blair, joined Big Brothers Big Sisters Greater Fredericksburg in the early summer of 2021. She was looking at how she could volunteer in her community and believed mentoring would be a great fit for her as she felt as though she could have benefited from having a mentor as a youth. She wanted to be matched with an active Little Sister who was “a little nerdy and fun.”
Maggie was matched with her Little Sister, Caidyn, in June 2021. Caidyn’s mother enrolled her in the program so that she could have some one-on-one attention as the oldest sibling in a household being managed by a single mother. She wanted Caidyn to have a strong, confident foundation heading into middle school and her mother felt a mentor could help her to embrace who she was unapologetically.
Maggie proved to be the perfect Big Sister for Caidyn. The match hit it off immediately and jumped into activities like working on homework, crafts, drawing, baking, going out to eat, and going to the park. Right from the beginning, match meetings would last several hours because Caidyn and Maggie would talk nonstop about everything. Sometimes they would meet more than once a week because they had such a good time together.
Match activities were built on things like doing holiday crafts, baking Christmas cookies, helping Caidyn
with her math homework, and talking. Caidyn would share her feelings about her family with Maggie and in turn, Maggie would help Caidyn express those feelings to her mom. Caidyn said that the best thing about Maggie was that she really understood her.
In May, Maggie took an opportunity and moved to London; therefore, the official BBBS match between her and Caidyn had to be closed. However, the relationship that they built will last a lifetime. Maggie and Caidyn’s match was built on the everyday moments that sometimes seem insignificant but are often the most powerful. During the 3 years that they were matched, Maggie was the epitome of It Takes Little to Be Big. We are honored to present Maggie Blair with the award for Big Sister of the Year for 2024.
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