Rip Peterman: 30 Year Big Brother
Rip Peterman joined the Big Brothers program at BBGV in 1979. Over the past 30 years, he has dedicated over 6,000 hours to mentoring. From 1979 to 2005, he was a mentor to six different Little Brothers who each benefited immensely from the friendship.
His inspirational journey through mentoring all started one morning while he was reading the Vancouver Sun and came across a cartoon sketch by Ben Wicks, a Toronto-based political cartoonist who had partnered with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada to run a single-frame cartoon about mentoring in the Vancouver Sun. Inspired by the cartoon, Rip decided to give BBGV a call.
“I have always enjoyed working with youth. I used to coach ball and had been an umpire in Little League so I thought, why not give one-on-one mentoring a try?” says Rip..
While the agency’s program only requires Big Brother volunteers to spend 2-4 hours a week with Little Brothers, Rip was committed to the program and spent several hours every single week, twice a week on some occasions, with his Little Brothers building model ships, hiking, sailing, watching movies and just hanging out.
Rip understood the value of spending time with a young boy and encouraged activities that were no cost or low-cost because it wasn’t what they did that was important, but rather the time they spent together working on these projects.
Rip also taught life lessons, including the value of a dollar. In fact, Rip recalls one summer with a Little Brother who desperately wanted a Sega Play Station. Rather than asking his mother for the money to buy the game, the Little Brother and Rip did odd jobs earned by circulating a flyer offering their services throughout the neighborhood. After working on a steady project a few hours each week throughout the summer break, Rip’s Little Brother proudly bought the game himself.
Rip’s dedication to his Little Brothers is evident in his attitude toward mentoring. He mentions that to be a Big Brother, you must be patient and understand that some of the boys in the program come from broken families and may have been let down by men in the past.
“Consistency is the biggest thing,” says Rip. “It will take a while before they see you as an adult who is a friend, not a parent. It will take time for them to open up to you but once they do, it’s amazing and you realize that these boys are such great lads.”
In 2005, Rip took mentoring in a different direction by enrolling in the In-School Mentoring program in which he spent four years mentoring a Little Buddy throughout both elementary and high school. The match spent one hour each week at the boy’s school where they did many things including building model airplanes and boats from scratch.
Rip’s influence on each of his mentee’s lives proved to be extremely positive. In fact, three of Rip’s previous Little Brothers attended his 50th birthday celebration with bright eyes and a positive future. Now adults, all three are leading fulfilling lives, one in the security sector, another as a successful entrepreneur and one married with two children of his own. Rip is now retired and plans to rejoin the In-School Mentoring program in the near future.
To learn more about how you can support friendships like these, visit www.bigbrothersvancouver.com or call 604.876.2447.
