UC High’s Best Buddies Club, which meets every Wednesday at lunch in room 211, is a club created to establish friendships between general education students and students with intellectual and development disabilities.

   UC High associates with the Best Buddies nonprofit, international organization (bestbuddies.org). According to the official Best Buddies website, the organization has been giving those with intellectual and developmental disabilities the opportunity to create friendships, develop leadership qualities, and get employed since it was founded in 1989.

The Best Buddies Club at UC High consists of associate members and peer members. Associate members are students who come in and spend time with groups of students with special needs, while peer members are students who are matched up with a single student with disabilities, to get to know him/her better.  Peer Member Daniel Stigall, who joined the club at the beginning of his junior year, is peer buddies with Junior Nick Imthurn, a student with disabilites.  “We hang out during school, but we also do things outside of school sometimes, like going to soccer games,” said Stigall.

Senior Rebecca Harpster, the President of the Best Buddies Club, first joined during her sophomore year because she had friends in the club. Once she joined, she loved it and decided to stay. “People should definitely try it, because it’s not what you expect and it’s not intimidating at all,” Harpster said.  She would like to continue on this route in the future by joining her college’s Best Buddies Club or by helping with the Special Olympics.

“Best Buddies helps students build relationships with others that they would not otherwise have the chance to build. It is also important for building social skills and for helping students with disabilites feel included in the social life of the school,” said Special Education Teacher Steve Moore, who is also the advisor of the Best Buddies Club. Though the club is mostly run by students, Moore’s main responsibility as advisor is to supervise during club events.

Best Buddies Club meetings generally consist of members talking and eating lunch together, but sometimes there are other activities included, like arts and crafts or games. The club also organizes events, ranging from the upcoming Birch Aquarium field trip in April, to the Best Buddies Prom in June, where Best Buddies clubs from multiple high schools get together and have a dance.

The Best Buddies Club is also working on projects to discourage the use of the word “retarded” because of its hurtful connotation. That is why UC High’s Best Buddies Club holds End the R-Word Day in March. According to Harpster, T-shirts will be sold and a poster will be out during lunch for students to sign who want to pledge to not use the word.