Everyone belongs in Best Buddies!

This is the message the Best Buddies club embodies.

Best Buddies is a new club that pairs life skills students with student volunteers as a way to promote inclusion and new friendships.

The Best Buddies organization was created in 1989 in Florida by Anthony Kennedy Shriver to foster one-to-one friendships between people with and without intellectual and physical challenges. The organization is active in all 50 states and in 56 countries. It is comprised of nine programs that positively impact more than 1.3 million individuals worldwide.

Junior Emily Young brought the program to Beaver Area after attending an online event where it was mentioned. Young has always felt strongly about programs like this, and she’s been helping out in the life skills classroom since she was a freshman.

“I went in front of the school board, they approved it, and now I’m here!” Young said about the club.

Friday, Best Buddies hosted a gardening and popsicle party in the courtyard outside the Little Theater where they officially kicked off the club.

“Everyone spoke from their cards, and then Jesse went up and cut the ribbon,” sophomore member Ben Balitski said of the event.

The ribbon-cutting was part of the club’s project to spruce up the courtyard with a new bench and two elevated planters.

There won’t be much else for Best Buddies this year, but next year there are some big plans in motion.

“Next year we’re going on field trips, and we’re just going get to know everyone,” Young said.