[ [link removed] ]John Fetterman


John,

For most of my life, I’ve been a "big" brother through Big Brothers Big
Sisters of America, one of the largest volunteer mentoring programs in the
country.

So I couldn’t let National Siblings Day go by without telling you about my
"little" brother, Nick. The bond we share is one the most transformative
relationships of my life. 🙏

I was finishing up grad school in rural Connecticut when I was paired with
Nick, a young boy from a family in New Haven who was 8 years old.

[ [link removed] ]John and Nick in the early 1990s.

Me and Nick circa 1993. Yea that’s hair on my head.

This little dude was so sweet and *incredibly* smart, and I felt so lucky
to be his mentor. Nick had recently lost his father to AIDS, and his
mother was dying from it, too.

I remember meeting Nick’s mom in bed, under a blanket. She was just skin
and bones. It blew me away to think that my "little" would lose both of
his parents before his 9th birthday. Right before she passed away in 1994,
I promised Nick’s mom I would continue looking after her son and help him
graduate from college.

By then, the HIV/AIDS epidemic had claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.
America’s most vulnerable communities were decimated, while racist and
homophobic stigma around the disease grew. In 1993, there were an
estimated 2.5 million AIDS cases globally.

The Reagan White House tragically failed to take action a decade earlier,
and even laughed off questions about the epidemic as it spread across the
United States. The U.S. government’s failure to fight the HIV/AIDS
epidemic resulted in unforgivable mass death and the destruction of
families like Nick’s.

This core observation of our society upended everything I knew. To fight
the HIV/AIDS epidemic — and the American disease of systemic inequality —
we needed to invest more in essential safety net programs and policies
that help working families. [ [link removed] ]I started following a new path of public
service to fight inequality — and that’s exactly what I’m *still* doing
today.

Throughout the years and across different states, Nick and I maintained
our "big" and "little" mentorship. And 15 years later, we both held up our
ends of our promise. This is Nick’s graduation from college in Washington,
PA with Gisele + Baby Karl in 2009. I had just won my second term as
Braddock’s mayor — a path that Nick put me on.

[ [link removed] ]John, Gisele, Nick, and Baby Karl in 2009.



[ [link removed] ]I have to ask,
John. Will you chip in your first $5 to
our campaign and help send me to the U.S. Senate where I’ll fight
inequality and push for social programs that help everyone? I’ll be
Pennsylvania’s "big" senator by *never* giving up on working people.

[ [link removed] ]Contribute $5



Thanks for everything, John.
I’m continually overwhelmed by your support.

John

John Fetterman
Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania


 


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