For senior Haley Kibby, it all started in the hopes that it would spice up her college application in her future years. She never realized that it could later lead to a passion of working with special education students. She is working to pursue her goals by going on to college and becoming an intern for the corporate organization, Best Buddies. Kibby says there is a difference between why you join something and why you stay with something that you have joined.

“I wanted to join, because it will look good on my college application,” Kibby said. “I stayed because it’s so unique and it is something that I have never seen before because it is all about inclusion and friendship.”

According to Kibby, Best Buddies isn’t just a club as some people may perceive it to be. It is a way to get involved with students that have an IDD (Intellectual and Developmental Disability) and a way to create lasting friendships between students of SHS and of Rise Learning Center.

In this program, the students pair up and become ¨buddies.¨ Each pair of buddies hang out twice a month and do things such as going to the movies or going bowling.

Not only do they do things with just their buddy, but with the whole group as well. Once a month Best Buddies holds a meeting and then later that month they hold an event varying from being an Indians game to a bowling tournament. Best Buddies also appear at the Rise Learning Center’s dances such as homecoming, prom, and their holiday dances.

One change that Best Buddies will be seeing is that, unlike prior years, they will be buddying up with students from SHS’s own Special Education Department.

¨I want to see it succeed, be fun and get bigger,¨ Kibby said. ¨I want to see more people come.¨