{"id":150589,"date":"2021-06-23T16:00:02","date_gmt":"2021-06-23T20:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bestbuddies.org\/?p=150589"},"modified":"2021-06-23T16:04:46","modified_gmt":"2021-06-23T20:04:46","slug":"best-buddies-in-new-jersey-receives-diversity-and-inclusion-nonprofit-of-the-year-award-by-new-jersey-business-industry-association-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bestbuddies.org\/meet-skylar-and-maddy","title":{"rendered":"Meet Skylar and Maddy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\">[vc_row][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner offset=&#8221;vc_hidden-lg vc_hidden-md&#8221;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;150590&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; alignment=&#8221;center&#8221;][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]In 2018, Center High School in Antelope, California brought the Best Buddies Friendship Program to their school for the first time.<\/p>\n<p>Becca is the mom of Skylar, who joined Best Buddies during its founding year and shared, \u201cBest Buddies was one of the most amazing happenings in my daughter\u2019s life, on the social front!\u00a0It was when my daughter was 17 and stayed home sick from school that her friend, Maddy, called to see how she was doing, to make sure she was ok, as Maddy noticed she wasn\u2019t at school that day.\u00a0I cried because this had never happened before.\u00a0No friends ever called to check in on Skylar \u2013 who has a rare neurological disorder called Rett Syndrome.\u00a0Alas, life for my daughter is not easy, but it shouldn\u2019t have ever been lonely \u2013 Best Buddies agrees with that philosophy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Maddy recognized the challenges that anyone can have in making friends in high school and wanted her peers to feel included and accepted so she signed up to be a part of Best Buddies at club sign ups her sophomore year, the first year Best Buddies was offered at Center. Skylar was a senior at the time and the two were matched and able to spend that year getting to know each other through the various events and hangouts put on by the club. The school year ended in them being able to celebrate Skylar\u2019s graduation.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, their friendship continues to evolve. \u201cSkylar and I both like watching movies and we are both pretty big Disney fans. We went and saw Frozen 2 in theaters when it came out and other than that, we like to take walks whether it&#8217;s around the neighborhood or around\u00a0the mall.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>COVID-19 hasn\u2019t gotten in the way of their friendship either. For Skylar\u2019s 20th\u00a0birthday this year Maddy joined the family to watch Kipo and eat sushi, and although the annual\u00a0Best Buddies Friendship Walk\u00a0was virtual due to COVID, the two celebrated together by safely walking in their neighborhood instead. Since then they have decided to make it a point to have monthly get togethers to prioritize their friendship.<\/p>\n<p>When asked what she would say to anyone who hasn\u2019t been involved in Best Buddies before, Maddy says, \u201cBeing in the program and meeting the most amazing and kindest people is so worth joining. I am really\u00a0glad I joined the Best Buddies program, otherwise I wouldn&#8217;t have made so many cool new friends like Sky.\u201d[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243; offset=&#8221;vc_hidden-sm vc_hidden-xs&#8221;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;150590&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; alignment=&#8221;center&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner offset=&#8221;vc_hidden-lg vc_hidden-md&#8221;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;150590&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; alignment=&#8221;center&#8221;][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]In 2018, Center High School in Antelope, California brought the Best Buddies Friendship Program to their school for the first time. Becca is the mom of Skylar, who joined Best Buddies during its founding year and shared, \u201cBest Buddies was one of the most [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-150589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Meet Skylar and Maddy - Best Buddies International<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bestbuddies.org\/meet-skylar-and-maddy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meet Skylar and Maddy - Best Buddies International\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[vc_row][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner offset=&#8221;vc_hidden-lg vc_hidden-md&#8221;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;150590&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; alignment=&#8221;center&#8221;][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]In 2018, Center High School in Antelope, California brought the Best Buddies Friendship Program to their school for the first time. 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