{"id":92807,"date":"2017-03-27T10:43:24","date_gmt":"2017-03-27T14:43:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bestbuddies.org\/?p=92807"},"modified":"2021-04-15T17:13:48","modified_gmt":"2021-04-15T21:13:48","slug":"best-buddies-launches-town-high-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bestbuddies.org\/2017\/03\/27\/best-buddies-launches-town-high-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Buddies Launches at Town High Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"asset_gallery\">\n<div class=\"hst-resgallery-container static-frame\">\n<div class=\"control-panel\">\n<div class=\"control-panel-inner\">\n<div class=\"caption \">\n<div class=\"caption-full\">\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mysanantonio.com\/news\/article\/Best-Buddies-launches-at-town-high-schools-11023149.php\">mySa<\/a><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"caption-full\">\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bestbuddies.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/mySA.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-92809 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bestbuddies.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/mySA-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"mySA\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>FAIRFIELD \u2014 A smile across her face, Caroline Maffai, 19, recounted fun going to the movies and out to restaurants with peers on weekend and after school outings she has enjoyed as part of her school\u2019s new Best Buddies chapter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Maffai, a Fairfield Ludlowe High School senior, is among members of the new club, a chapter of the international Best Buddies organization that aims to foster one-to-one friendships between people with intellectual and developmental disabilities \u2014 like Maffai \u2014 and typical peers. Ludlowe\u2019s club launched this past fall, and Fairfield Warde High School is currently organizing a new chapter, set to begin meeting next month.<\/p>\n<p>Libby Kennedy, a speech-language pathologist, joined Ludlowe\u2019s special education department last school year. She was amazed by how integrated all students are into the school\u2019s classrooms day to day, but as summer approached she thought about how students with disabilities are often the \u201cforgotten ones\u201d during breaks, after school and over weekends.<\/p>\n<p>She learned of Best Buddies, a club she realized might help integrate students with disabilities outside the classroom.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cStudents with disabilities \u2014 there\u2019s kind of this unknown and fear of the unknown and there\u2019s not necessarily discrimination \u2014 I think that students and faculty within the Ludlowe community, everyone is very accepting,\u201d Kennedy said, \u201cbut I think (Best Buddies) takes away the unknown and really shows that people are people, and it doesn\u2019t matter what your differences are, everyone has strengths and weaknesses. It just brings them together regardless.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Kennedy worked with Fairfield parents, filled out an application last August and started to recruit students in September. Due to student and parent enthusiasm, she believes, Best Buddies approved the the chapter hastier than usual \u2014 by early November. More than 30 students with disabilities and typical peers are now in Ludlowe\u2019s Best Buddies, which began to meet regularly in December.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Students text and Snapchat, or go out to get their nails done or ice cream. Kennedy has led group bowling and movies trips, and she plans to organize community service outings in the future. Last Saturday a group saw \u201cBeauty and the Beast\u201d for one member\u2019s birthday. Currently, students personally pay at outings, but Kennedy is hoping to organize a fundraiser at a local restaurant soon to ensure no students miss out for financial reasons.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Sarah Sykes, a special education teacher at Warde, has worked to found the school\u2019s chapter with family and consumer sciences teacher Amy Bien. They have held parent and student information sessions the past two weeks in preparation for a group to begin meeting at the end of April.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cI feel like it\u2019s important for all students to have friends, and a lot of the students in my classes in particular are friends with each other but don\u2019t have neuro-typical friends,\u201d Sykes said, citing Best Buddies as an avenue to form those friendships.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">To read the full story click <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mysanantonio.com\/news\/article\/Best-Buddies-launches-at-town-high-schools-11023149.php\">here.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A smile across her face, Caroline Maffai, 19, recounted fun going to the movies and out to restaurants with peers on weekend and after school outings she has enjoyed as part of her school\u2019s new Best Buddies chapter. Maffai, a Fairfield Ludlowe High School senior, is among members of the new club, a chapter of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":92809,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"news-single-post.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[676],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Best Buddies Launches at Town High Schools - 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\/2017\/03\/27\/best-buddies-launches-town-high-schools\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Best Buddies Launches at Town High Schools - Best Buddies International\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A smile across her face, Caroline Maffai, 19, recounted fun going to the movies and out to restaurants with peers on weekend and after school outings she has enjoyed as part of her school\u2019s new Best Buddies chapter. Maffai, a Fairfield Ludlowe High School senior, is among members of the new club, a chapter of...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bestbuddies.org\/2017\/03\/27\/best-buddies-launches-town-high-schools\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Best Buddies International\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-03-27T14:43:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-04-15T21:13:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bestbuddies.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/mySA.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"748\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bestbuddies.org\/2017\/03\/27\/best-buddies-launches-town-high-schools\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bestbuddies.org\/2017\/03\/27\/best-buddies-launches-town-high-schools\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Best Buddies Launches at Town High Schools\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-03-27T14:43:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-04-15T21:13:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bestbuddies.org\/2017\/03\/27\/best-buddies-launches-town-high-schools\/\"},\"wordCount\":493,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bestbuddies.org\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bestbuddies.org\/2017\/03\/27\/best-buddies-launches-town-high-schools\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.bestbuddies.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/mySA.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News Archive\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bestbuddies.org\/2017\/03\/27\/best-buddies-launches-town-high-schools\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.bestbuddies.org\/2017\/03\/27\/best-buddies-launches-town-high-schools\/\",\"name\":\"Best Buddies Launches at Town High Schools - 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