A Grand Slam for Josh!
For nearly 92 years, Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters has been serving children in need of caring adult friendship. In its pursuit of serving all children in need of a Big Brother or Big Sister, JBBBS has started it's "92 in 92" campaign, finding 92 Big Brothers in our 92nd year of service. During this campaign, we will share with you “Match Moments”, those times that make a match with Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters so special.
Andy has been a Big Brother with Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters since February, 2010. He is 31 and lives in Brookline.
I'm not sure I'm even allowed to write this on JewishBoston.com, but it's important that you know I'm not a Red Sox fan. It's not that I don't enjoy baseball; I was just raised as the son and grandson of fans of "another team." Let's leave it at that. My co-workers, all native Bostonians, give me a hard time for being a fan of the "other guys," but I've gotten pretty good at giving it back. Mostly it's not a problem. It hasn't been easy, but I've always been upfront about my fandom - that is, until I met Josh.
Josh is my 7 year old "little" through Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters. We were matched about six months ago. He is one of the sweetest, funniest little boys you'll ever meet. And of course he's a little bit mischievous! The first few times we hung out together, Josh brought out the camp counselor/disciplinarian in me. That wasn't really fun for either of us. Pretty quickly I realized that my role was not to be a fill-in parent but just to be a fun "big brother" and give Josh a chance to hang out and play. Since then, we've had a ton of fun together. We went go-karting and took a shot at mini-golf. Sometimes we just hang out and play Pokemon or Wii. We're still working on getting Josh on a bike without training wheels, but he's getting a lot better. For all of our fun, there was one thing Josh wanted to do that I hadn't come through on yet. He wanted to go to a ball game.
So on the advice of a friend who is also a "Big", I picked up tickets to the Lowell Spinners for a Sunday afternoon game. We talked about it for a few weeks before the game, and we were both pretty psyched. The week before we were supposed to go, JBBBS threw us a curve ball- two tickets to a Red Sox game at Fenway the same day as the Spinners game! I didn't have to ask Josh what he wanted to do. He is a huge Red Sox fan and had never been to a Sox game at Fenway before. We were Fenway bound and he was super excited!
I might have been raised a fan of the other team, but I was also raised that you stay through the last out of a game. I didn't want to be responsible for teaching Josh anything else. So I did my research before the game and found all of the kid friendly parts of Fenway. Josh and I were going to make it through the whole game, even if we had to spend a few innings at the new Wally's World playground.
The seats JBBBS set us up with were amazing and we could see just about everything (which Sox fans will have to admit, is not true of a lot of seats at Fenway). Josh just kept marvelling at parts of the stadium that I hadn't even noticed before. And he could always tell me exactly where Wally was in the stadium.
In the fourth inning, we walked down to get Josh a slice of pizza from the kosher machine. I was worried that he might be getting bored, so I offered to take him to Wally's World to play and get a picture with Wally. Josh's response? "Um, can we go back to watch the game now please?" I couldn't have been prouder! We went straight back to our seats. In the bottom of the ninth, I even had to cheer with him when the Red Sox scored on a blown throw to first by the pitcher - and won the game! Josh spent the whole ride home talking about that final play.
When we got back to his house, Josh still couldn't stop talking about the game (his mom told me that he didn't stop talking about it for a whole week). Once Josh was out of earshot, I finally confessed my secret to his mom. She thought it best not to tell him... at least until he's in college. I'm hoping he doesn't read this piece!
My biggest concern before I started JBBBS was that I wouldn't be able to find the time to give to my "little" every month. And honestly, it isn't always easy. But I am so glad that I always do make the time. Hanging out with Josh has turned out to be one of the most important, fun, and rewarding appointments in my entire calendar. I'm already looking forward to our next complete game together!
Are you looking for a way to get involved and make a huge difference in a local child’s life? Consider volunteering as a Big Brother or Big Sister with Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters. For more information or to apply visit, www.jbbbs.org or call Robin Cohen at 617-558-6535.
