During the holidays, we welcomed over 100 matches to our BIG Holiday Extravaganza, which took place in Downtown Sacramento at the Hyatt Regency. The extravaganza celebrated our program success in 2019, gave our Little’s a chance to spend some extra time with their Big’s during the holidays, and the opportunity to recognize our volunteer mentors for their hard work and dedication driving the BBBS mission.
The celebration commenced with some good old-fashioned arts and crafts, with matches building scrumptious marshmallow snowmen and festive Santa beards that were conveniently slipped on and worn the rest of the evening!
Mr. and Mrs. Claus made a special appearance, along with baby Claus, some tasty candy canes, and most importantly, gifts for our much deserving Little’s in attendance! Before the Claus’ headed back to the North Pole, Big’s and Little’s had a chance to take a few photos with the entire Claus family. We especially appreciated our Big’s encouraging our Little’s to spread some extra holiday cheer when posing for the camera!
We could not end the evening without expressing gratitude to those who make our program possible: our volunteer mentors! Leading up to the BIG Holiday Extravaganza, our Little’s were able to nominate their mentor for the Big of the Year award by sharing their favorite mentoring moments. Although it was heartwarming to learn how each Big had added value to their Little’s life, our agency had to complete the difficult task of choosing one Big Brother and Big Sister to honor during the celebration.
The Big of the Year award went to Debbie, Big Sister to Alethea and Levi, who is matched with Little Brother, Timothy. Words can’t express how thankful we are to have such selfless, inspiring people like Debbie and Levi as mentors to our Little’s.
Even our amazing BBBS team (pictured below left) carved out some time to share a few jolly moments during the evening. Thanks to our dedicated team, the BIG Holiday Extravaganza was truly a night to remember for our matches. Board Members, Leeland Washington and Shellie Smallwood (pictured below right), were also in attendance and shared a few heartfelt words, inspiring matches to keep up the momentum moving into 2020!
Our holiday event proved to be an extraordinary celebration that not only welcomed the essence of the holiday spirit, it positioned our Big’s and Little’s to move into the new year happy, encouraged, and ready for another year of match success!
The BIG Holiday Extravaganza was made possible with the support of our trusted community partners – CFMA, Hyatt Regency Sacramento, Broadway Sacramento, Macy’s, and SAFE Credit Union. Thank you for your unwavering commitment igniting the power and promise of today’s youth!
View more BIG Holiday Extravaganza event pictures here.
