Dear Husky Ticket Project:
Nutmeg Big Brothers Big Sisters is incredibly grateful for having had the opportunity to send over 20 of our mentor-mentee matches to catch the home game against Cincinnati on Saturday, September 29th thanks to all the efforts and generosity of the Husky Ticket Project.
Our 100+ year old program model is a simple one – help connect children in-need with life changing mentors. But, in order for each of these relationships to take hold, grow, and hopefully have the type of transformational impact on the child’s life that we hope to achieve, we need to provide our Bigs and Littles low-cost/no-cost opportunity to explore their communities, deepen their relationships, and expand their horizons.
That’s exactly what makes our partnership with the Husky Ticket Project so special and exactly why we were so excited to send our kids to catch the game at Rentschler Field on September 29th.
We were excited because 17 of our kids who attended the game had never been to a UConn sporting event before. We were excited because 19 of our kids who attended had never even seen a live college or professional football game before.
And we were excited because one of our kids, Tristan – who is typically so quiet his Big, Luke, sometimes struggle to simply get him to talk – spent the entire game chatting with his Big about the game and the stadium, about the crowd and the university, and about his life and hopes for the future.
And that right there is what makes Husky Ticket Project so special. It isn’t simply about the game, or the stadium, or the crowd, or the hot dogs, or the teams on the field. It’s about providing an opportunity – at least here at Nutmeg Big Brothers Big Sisters – for kids in-need to deepen, enrich, and transform their connections with their mentors through the shared experience of sports and fandom.
It’s this opportunity for interpersonal connections that not only make sports so special, but what make the work of the Husky Ticket Project so crucial to the work of so many youth development programs around Connecticut – because it’s not simply about the tickets, it’s about providing that young person the opportunity to access an experience, a community, and an environment that has the power to expand their horizons, shift their priorities, and deepen their connections with others in their lives who truly care about them.
So though I might be biased (I’m an alum after all), we could not be happier to be a continued partner of the Husky Ticket Project and are so grateful to all of the volunteers, donors, and supporters who help make opportunities like this one available to our young people.
Thanks again, Husky Ticket Project!