“My mentor is probably the best thing that ever happened to me. She’s someone I can talk to all the time, someone who guides me in the right direction. She helps me with a lot and I think I would seriously be lost without her. Brandy shows me self-confidence and she tells me that even on my worst day I have to keep trying.”

“I had abandonment issues growing up. Having a Big Sister as a constant in my life made me realize that not everyone I loved was going to leave me. I feel like I did a lot of the things growing up that I wouldn’t have been able to do. She taught me to be proud of myself and who I am and where I came from.”

“Being a mentor isn’t a job. It’s a role in someone’s life. It’s the opportunity to guide someone, to show them the path to reach the stars. The chance to make an impact, to change how someone views life, it’s the best reward. However,they also have something to teach me. They open my eyes to a whole other perspective. They show that there is more than just my way to do things. They teach me just as much as I teach them. To me, being a mentor is the most rewarding opportunity life can offer. It brings two different people to create a special, unbreakable bond.”

“I think [Amelia] did so well with her goal. She’s not only learned about making friends and keeping them she’s really learned and shown through her actions that she wants good friends who are going to treat her with kindness and respect. Positive friends who share her same values. And when there have been instances in her friendships that have made her upset or uncomfortable, she’s been able to work through them and decide yes I want to continue being friends with this person and I need to do things differently or this person is not a good person in my life and I’m okay with letting them go. I could not be more proud [of Amelia] for her choices about friends.”

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel,” (Maya Angelou). I love this quote because it speaks volumes with how we should treat others. Being a mentor is more than volunteering. Being a mentor means to leave a positive foot print in a young person’s life, that they could potentially pass on to the next generation."