Best Buddies: Building Friendship

Best Buddies is a club that we have here at the high school. This club is for students who want to spend time with special needs individuals and help them feel as included at the high school as everyone else. This club is open to everyone at the school and is extremely recommended for all students. One member of Best Buddies, junior Mia Heinrich said “I would highly recommend joining Best Buddies because it is great to work with special needs kids, we do a lot of fun activities, and it is only an hour on early-out Wednesdays”. As Mia said, Best Buddies is an hour long from 1:10-2:10 in room 560 on early-out Wednesdays. Best Buddies is always looking for more members and is an extremely inclusive club. Almost everyone who joins loves their experience and continues to be in best buddies throughout their high school years. Sophomore Hannah O’Conner says, “I’m going to stay in Best Buddies because it is really fun and a good way to spend early-out Wednesdays.” Even if you don’t want to permanently be in Best Buddies, you can always go to a few of the events when you are able.

In addition, Best Buddies does a variety of fun activities every Wednesday. They have days where they just stay in the classroom and play fun board games, do go noodle dancing, and hang out. Other days they leave the room and do a fun scavenger hunt around the school or go into the art room and paint pumpkins for the fall season. Mia said, “My favorite part of Best Buddies is doing fun activities with everyone, like games, field trips, and more! I also love how inclusive and fun it is!” They do so many different activities, so there’s never a boring week at Best Buddies. When the weather’s nice they take advantage and have done activities like going to the Waukee ice cream shop, or chalk outside.  Even when they are forced to stay inside they always make the most out of it and still have a great time. Sophomore Anne Johnson said, “My favorite activity Best Buddies has done so far has been either the scavenger hunt around the school or making rice krispy treats!” Best Buddies always has creative new ideas for each week and it creates a very fun and exciting environment for everyone.

Overall, Best Buddies is a great way to make connections with new people because of all the different students who participate. You can join this club with your friends and hang out with them while doing all the activities with the buddies. Hannah said, “I joined Best Buddies because a lot of my friends were doing it, and I had some upperclassmen tell me it was fun and that I should join.” While this club is really fun, that isn’t the only reason why it is such a great thing to participate in. Best Buddies also helps with many life skills. The club teaches you more about special needs kids and how to positively work with them while getting to have a lot of fun. It encourages inclusion between all students and builds friendships for students who may not have been friends overwise. Anne talked about how she suggests joining Best Buddies to all students, “I would 100% recommend joining Best Buddies! It’s so fun getting to see and know the buddies better and getting to spend my early-out Wednesdays with them!” Best Buddies represents building friendships and creating a positive community for all. Everyone who participates feels valued and important because of all the support within the club. In my opinion, all students should think about joining Best Buddies to make the school a more inclusive and more positive place.