One-to-One Friendship

“I joined Best Buddies at Albany Middle School when Camille Fischer, the Faculty Advisor, started it at the school. Camille had been an advisor with another chapter at the previous school that she worked at. I was in 7th grade when Camille started teaching math at AMS. Camille loved Best Buddies so much that she started a chapter at Albany Middle School that same year. It didn’t take much convincing for me to join! The best part was that when I graduated 8th grade and moved on to Albany High School, they had a Best Buddies chapter and it was no question that I was going to join the chapter there.

When I started Best Buddies at AHS I remembered Maha from Albany Middle School. When I was in 7th grade, Maha was in 8th. I had missed Maha when she moved on to high school, but it was so great when we were paired up because we could hang out  2-3 times a month. After getting to know each other after the first couple of meetings, we really started developing a friendship. We faced some difficulties when it came to communicating and scheduling time to hang out outside of school, but with the help of our advisor and Maha’s mom we were able to arrange ways to spend time together.

We always enjoy our time together! Since being matched as buddies in October of 2016, we have been able to do so much! We have watched countless movies, talked about music, boys and celebrated birthdays together (with her family, and even a surprise party! One of my favorite experiences with Maha was going to the iHeart Radio concert together. She had been telling me about the concert and I was able to surprise her with tickets! We were exhausted the next day, but it was worth it to see the smile on her face when each of the artists was announced, and when her favorite songs were played. It was such a fun night!

Maha and I will definitely be matched as buddies until she graduates next spring, and we plan on being friends for a lifetime!”

– Allison