Community Day: Happy birthday, Bona Buddies — you look great at 50!
Bona Buddies is a youth mentoring program held Monday through Thursday each week at St. Bonaventure University. Notably, with support from staff in University Ministries, Bona Buddies is led and operated by college students.
All students age 5 to 15 from the local area are welcome to be a “buddy” in Bona Buddies. Mentors in the program at St. Bonaventure are students who have been both interviewed and trained in child protection and safety as well as child development.
Bona Buddies hosts an annual Halloween party at the SBU campus.
The Bona Buddies program is entering its 50th year, creating a lasting impact for local kids and for college students. It is clear that the quality of the program has been maintained for half a century because of people who care — people who care about their neighbor.
Bona Buddies is free of charge for all participants, offering a quality mentoring program and offering access to all youth in the Olean-Allegany area.
Buddies come to campus once a week for two hours. Each day buddies and mentors have the chance to read to one another for 10 minutes. The remainder of the first hour is spent playing outside, doing arts and crafts, playing a game or just visiting with one another. The second hour allows the buddies to experience the many clubs and activities on the Bona campus.
Student clubs come to Bona Buddies to engage the buddies in new or unique experiences. Clubs that visit Bona Buddies are: SBU Step Team, Bonaventure Education Club, SBU Food Pantry, Empower, Club Volleyball, Bio-Chemistry Club and Women’s LAX.
An all-time favorite field trip for the buddies is the annual semester tradition of eating dinner in the Hickey Dining Hall. Halloween parties and ice skating at the Rec Center are also favorites, as well as visiting Canticle Farm or the Challenger Center.
We are privileged to exercise our Franciscan mission by reaching out into the community and welcoming youth of Olean onto our campus through Bona Buddies. If you would like more information about enrolling a child ages 5-15 in Bona Buddies, please reach out to Mike Waseda at hwaseda@sbu.edu .
