Through The Bridge Youth Advocacy program, Pete has been a mentor to two brothers–Charlie and Theo–for several years. Below, Charlie and Theo share (in their own words) what their relationship with Pete means to each of them:

“I have a couple of things about how Pete impacts my life. Pete always has a smile on his face and that makes me feel like I’m a part of this group. He is always kind to me and he is a great role model.  We do lots of fun activities such as bowling, flying a drone and training for track with my brother Theo. My favorite activity is camping and we have a lot of fun and joke around… he has a great sense of humor and really cares about me. I have been in the program for half of my life and even before he was officially my mentor I respected him.  He is a big reason why The Bridge is such a huge part of my life.  He always helps with every activity, drives to every event and makes everyone feel special. Pete,Liz and all of the mentors make this an amazing program for young people and I’m proud to be a part of it.”

          – Charlie

“Pete has made a huge impact on my life because whenever it is time to do track or cross country, he always pushed me to my limit. I am going to tell you a little story about him. I was in 8th grade and I was at one of my cross country meets. Pete came and I heard him yelling to beat the guy in front of me. Let’s get this straight, the guy was a couple of feet away from me, so that meant that I had to get to my top speed right away. When I came to get to the final stretch, it turns out that three guys were right behind me and were catching up to me. They were on the opposing team and I thought that I was going to lose. When all my friends and coaches started cheering my name, it made me go into a zone where I knew that I was going to beat them by a lot. I ended up barely winning the race. Pete was the first person to tell me that I did a good job, but he also gave me tips about running faster. I still use these techniques today.

Pete is a wonderful role model to me because if there is something that I need to talk to him about, he is always there to listen to me. We did a lot of fun things together over the years, and I enjoyed every second of it. Here are some of the things that we did together: Chicago fire game, playing basketball at the park district, flying a drones, bowling–we do that the most.”

           -Theo

Thank you, Pete, for making a positive impact/ being a dedicated mentor to both Theo and Charlie.  

Make a positive impact on the youth in your community by becoming a mentor today! To start your journey as a mentor, click here. Or email Kelsey at kboyer@bridgeyouth.org.