Special Needs Students Find Belonging at Best Buddies

While the goals of many clubs are competitions or acts of service, Best Buddies focuses on a simpler purpose: friendship.

Best Buddies is a club where students with disabilities feel included and can build genuine connections with their peers.

Members meet weekly to play games and interact with students with disabilities. For many, the club is a place where they can feel seen and supported.

“My students are so happy, and they talk about Best Buddies meetings and outside activities all the time,” Best Buddies advisor Gabrielle Joy said.

In addition to weekly meetings, Best Buddies hosts out-of-school events, where students with disabilities can participate in extracurricular activities, giving them a stronger sense of belonging in and out of school.

“At the cookie decorating party, students who normally keep to themselves were smiling and fully interacting with other students,” junior and treasurer Aarya Patel said.

Patel also added that small gestures, such as greeting the students in the hallways, brings them joy and puts a smile on their faces.

“I want everyone to see Best Buddies’ message of inclusion and realize how important it is,” junior and president Zoe
Dykas said.