(Article submitted by Bona Buddies for our Community Day newspaper)

Bona Buddies is a youth mentoring program where one-to-one relationships are established between St. Bonaventure University students and local children ages 5 to 15.

All children need the friendship, special attention, and interest of an older person. These relationships often fill the gap in the life of a youngster who needs positive role models and experiences.

Bona Buddies recently began something new. Each day when the buddies arrive on campus, mentors and buddies spend the first ten minutes reading together. Sometimes the buddies read to the mentors and other times mentors read to their buddies. We invested in books for buddies of all ages and a timer is set on the screen to guide the reading time. 

We have found this to be an important time between buddies and mentors. Some buddies are asking to read longer than ten minutes (which of course is encouraged). Other buddies are diving into a chapter book and when they arrive each week, picking up where they left off the week before. 

It is our goal to support the buddies in all areas of their growth and development. Reading every day when the buddies arrive is becoming the norm at Bona Buddies. It is so exciting to watch the buddies accept this new piece to the program they have grown to love over the years. 

United Way funding has been used to provide healthy snacks for our buddies, transportation costs picking up and taking home buddies that are not able to be brought to campus, program expenses which include arts and crafts materials, books and board games as well as the costs of offering three large parties for the buddies each year.

An application is required to enroll a child in the Bona Buddies program. Applications are accepted from August-October for fall semester, and from January-February for the spring semester.

To enroll a child or for more information, please contact Mike Waseda, assistant director of the Franciscan Center for Social Concern: (716) 375-2081 or email Mike.