{"id":185045,"date":"2024-11-25T11:44:20","date_gmt":"2024-11-25T16:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bestbuddies.org\/?p=185045"},"modified":"2024-11-25T11:44:20","modified_gmt":"2024-11-25T16:44:20","slug":"including-the-wolverines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bestbuddies.org\/michigan\/including-the-wolverines","title":{"rendered":"Including the Wolverines"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\">[vc_row][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/6&#8243;][\/vc_column][vc_column width=&#8221;2\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;185046&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; alignment=&#8221;center&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221;][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;15px&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221;]\n<p>Read the full article here: <a href=\"https:\/\/annarborobserver.com\/including-the-wolverines\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/annarborobserver.com\/including-the-wolverines\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>By: Davi Napoleon, mother of local Best Buddies participant<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;In January 2023, when Lydia Goff was working on her Master of Social Work at the U-M, she met two classmates: Wolverine quarterback Jack Tuttle and center Drake Nugent (now on the San Francisco 49ers). Goff was a longtime volunteer with Best Buddies, an organization dedicated to ending the isolation of those with IDD by pairing college students and community members with people with disabilities for one-on-one interactions and by hosting monthly events for everyone involved.<\/p>\n<p>Tom Brady was a donor to Best Buddies, Goff knew. Why not invite Tuttle and Nugent to become involved? They were all in and started showing up at Buddy events.<\/p>\n<p>Soon Goff, who has since become lead program manager of the national expansion team at Best Buddies, learned about Hail! Impact. The donor-funded Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) program that compensates athletes for charitable work brings together U-M football players and organizations that include Cancer Support Community of Greater Ann Arbor, the Humane Society of Huron Valley, Hope Clinic\u2014and, after Goff got in touch, Best Buddies.<\/p>\n<p>Goff and Chin Weerappuli, cofounder of Hail! Impact, launched the liaison with a pizza party and field day in July at Lillie Park on Platt Rd. Twelve players joined about thirty-five buddies. \u201cWe were able to facilitate that and take care of all expenses,\u201d Weerappuli says. Although the athletes receive compensation, that\u2019s not the only reason some participate&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Tuttle prepared the team for the next Buddies\/Hail! Impact event\u2014a visit to the Big House in August. Buddies were on the field for almost an hour, hanging out with the team members who autographed T-shirts and whatever else they brought. They were each paired with a player who \u201creally took the buddy under his wing and made sure they got autographs,\u201d says Goff.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;15px&#8221;][\/vc_column][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/6&#8243;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michigan football stars are improving the lives of people with IDD.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2080,"featured_media":185046,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"mi-single-post.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[535],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-185045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-michigan-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Including the Wolverines - 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\/michigan\/including-the-wolverines\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Including the Wolverines - 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