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Local BBBS pair win award
Published 6/23/2009 in Local News
By RACHAEL GRAY
Ralf Meister and J.D. Day learn from each other.
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Courtesy photo — J.D. Day and Ralf Meister accept an award from Kansas State football coach Bill Snyder Friday in Manhattan. The pair received the award for being an outstanding match and demonstrating a relationship that had an impact on both of their lives. Meister and Day are part of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Finney and Kearny Counties.
The weekly meetings of Meister, a farm machinery technician, and Day, an elementary school student, earned statewide attention from the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. The program recognized their relationship to be outstanding.
Meister and Day, 11, both of Garden City, received an award Friday in Manhattan from Kansas State football coach Bill Snyder for being an outstanding mentor match. Meister and Day are part of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Finney and Kearny Counties program.
In Manhattan they made a TV spot for the 2009 Coaches Challenge between Kansas and Nebraska. This is the second year for the challenge between Snyder and former Nebraska football coach and now Athletic Director Tom Osborne to see which state can recruit the most new mentors during the 2009 football season.
The challenge begins Aug. 1, and the winner will be announced at the Kansas State-Nebraska game Nov. 21 in Lincoln, Neb.
The outstanding match award recognizes mentoring relationships that demonstrate a significant impact in the lives of both the mentor and child. The pairs were selected based on their "active involvement, and spirit of creativity and tenacity in the development of their relationship."
Meister and Day have been a pair since November 2007. They meet once a week, usually Saturdays. Day said he learns a lot from Meister about farming, combines, tractors, harvest and the Bible. Meister said that Day isn't the only one learning.
"J.D. has taught me a lot about patience and persistence," Meister said.
Meister said activities such as chess, monopoly, cooking and gardening with Day have improved his patience and have taught Day important life lessons.
"In order to be effective in his life, I must find those teachable moments," Meister said.
Their favorite activity to do is swimming, they said. They have passes to the Garden City Family YMCA so they can go year-round.
Meister moved to the United States in 1997 from Germany. He started in Virginia, moved to Lucas, and landed a job in Garden City in 2005. He works for American Implement Inc. as a technician. Meister said the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization came to American Implement to distribute information and that's how he got involved.
Day, who will be a sixth-grader at Charles O. Stone Intermediate Center, has lived in Garden City his whole life. He said he looks forward to every weekly meeting with Meister.
"I learn a lot from Ralf," he said. "I really like him. He knows a lot."
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