Orillia’s Big Brothers and Big Sisters can now roll around the community in style thanks to a new car from Orillia Volkswagen.

The local car dealership gave a brand new 2024 Volkswagen Tiguan to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orillia and District on Thursday evening at a celebratory barbecue it hosted to commemorate the donation.

“They’re a great organization. They help the community out, and we always give back and wanted to show our appreciation by giving back with a car,” said Dustin Stein, Orillia Volkswagen general manager.

Though the dealership has partnered with Big Brothers Big Sisters in the past, through sponsorship, volunteering, and community outreach, Stein said he wanted to help the organization out with a new car when he learned its members use their own vehicles to help the community.

“I found out that they were using their own cars to go back and forth to pick up kids from schools and everything, so I thought it was a good way to show our thanks to them for helping out the community,” he said.

“We really wanted to show a partnership, more than a sponsorship — we wanted to show the community that we’re a partner with Big Brothers Big Sisters,” said Stein.

“It’s a great cause, and we’re extremely excited for the future with them.”

For Big Brothers Big Sisters, the new car will help the organization extend its reach in Orillia and beyond.

“It’ll really help us with our program needs in more rural communities surrounding Orillia, and within Orillia, especially where there’s transportation barriers and things like that,” said Miranda Chaffey, executive director with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orillia & District.

Whether doing intake for local programs in surrounding communities like Brechin, or helping kids in Orillia who face transportation barriers, to carrying out community awareness and outreach initiatives, Chaffey said the new car will help the organization in a big way.

“It’s a brand new opportunity. We’ve never had anything like this before, so we’re super excited about it,” she said. “Everybody right now is driving their personal vehicles and then the agency pays mileage, so this will really make a shift in those types of costs and just the accessibility of our programs, as well.”

Chaffey thanked Orillia Volkswagen for being so “community driven” with its support of Big Brothers Big Sisters.

“A big thank you to everybody at Volkswagen for being so community driven, and really trying to show the community that there’s different ways to creatively support local nonprofits,” she said. “It really does go a long way.”