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Mentoring allows John Angell to pass along his best traits

Ask John Angell who has influenced him most, and he'll answer in a flash: his father.

In fact, imagining what it would be like not to have his father is what inspired John, 45, of Niagara Falls, to become a Big Brother.

When the idea crossed his mind after talking to a friend who was a Big, whom else but his father would he consult?

His father, a caring, honest man and longtime Boy Scout leader, encouraged him to go ahead, and so John did. That was about 25 years ago. "Being a Big Brother has been one of the greatest things in my life, next to my wife, son and family," John says.

The motel desk clerk and former junior Scout leader has had a series of Little Brothers over the years and remarkably, still maintains those relationships. He and his current Little Brother, 15-year-old Colin, enjoy doing a wide range of activities together, from swimming, fishing and canoeing to soccer, baseball and woodworking.

The greatest benefit of volunteer mentoring, in John's experience, is being able to instill in someone else the same character traits his father and mother instilled in him "for example, honesty, loyalty and understanding, to name a few.

John also loves seeing the look in his Little Brother's eyes upon catching sight of him, and the smile on his Little face when they do things together.

Even when John is gone, he believes, he will live on in others through the positive encounters he's had and the positive relationships he's built.

Knowing that his best traits already live on in each of his Little Brothers whom he describes, half in jest, as "Little versions of himself" John encourages other men to become Big Brothers, too.

"It doesn't take a lot of time to make a difference in someone else's life, and you'll get more out of it than you can possibly imagine," he says.