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Air Force Cadet Makes Time For Kid in Need By Meri-Jo Borzilleri/The Colorado Springs Gazette (2/4)
Feb. 4, 2000
Karrie Bracken plays soccer for the Air Force Academy. So it wasn't so unusual a few months back when she asked trainer Dee Zamora to treat her sore neck. The request wasn't weird. The timing was. It wasn't soccer season any more. Bracken got the strained neck from sleeping on the gym floor of the YMCA gym during a Big Brothers/Big Sisters sleep-over. "We slept in sleeping bags, played basketball, they opened the pool, got to bed at about 2a.m.," Bracken said, laughing. "We got a 6 a.m. wake-up." Sleep deprivation is nothing new for Bracken, a three-year Big Brothers/Big Sisters participant. She and fellow cadet Eric Hanssen have been "bigs" to Patrick Kennedy since he was 7. The program is designed to pair adults with kids who need a grown-up role model or companion other than their parents. Someone older to goof around with. To talk to. To bring along for a gym-floor slumber party or ice-skating session.
Patrick's mom, Lisa, is a single parent. She also has a son Robert, 12.
"Patrick never met his real father," Lisa said. "Then he had a stepfather for three years. He left. Patrick wants an older figure in the house. He needs to trust somebody to stick around. He's getting more trusting. He loves Karrie and Eric. His eyes light up when he talks about them." It would be easy for Bracken to beg off. Spare time is at a premium at the Air Force Academy, where cadets routinely cram 21 credit hours into a semester and cope with military life. Bracken, a senior, also played forward on the soccer team each fall, which meant practices and games and road trips. Air Force plays a big role in Colorado Springs' Big Brothers/Big Sisters program. About 150 cadets participate, getting together with 75 kids at least once a month for afternoon field days, or activities like bowling or playing arcade games. Even so, Bracken wasn't sure she wanted to be a Big Sister. "I always was really concerned: Would I have time for this program?" she said. "But it's all about setting your priorities and doing what's important to you. So you maybe don't go out on a Friday night, or you get up early on a Saturday to do homework." The reward: Patrick, who's less shy than he was three years ago. "It has made him a little more confident," says Lisa, who has watched her son, a Steele Elementary School fourth-grader, take up soccer and the violin. Why the violin? "It's smaller than the rest," Patrick said. "It's easier to carry." Being a Big Sister has helped Bracken, an only child from Denver, become more hip to the ways of kids today. "I'm definitely a better Frisbee player," she said. "Pokemon - I've tried it, and he's tried to explain it. We e-mail back and forth. It's amazing how much more in tune with technology he is than I was at that age." On May 31, Bracken and Hanssen graduate. Lisa and Patrick plan to be there, cheering, when the hats go up. After all, they're practically family. |
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