The fight to provide children with intellectual and developmental disabilities a safe and inclusive environment can be traced back to before the 1960s. The organization of Best Buddies has contributed to that cause since its founding in 1987 by Anthony Kennedy Shriver at Georgetown University. Two years later, Best Buddies became the first nonprofit organization in America to provide people with general learning disabilities a unified and social recreational program.

“Best buddies is a global organization that has chapters in high school and college, whose goal is to provide social inclusion for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities,”  Niharika Srivastava (12) said.

Three years ago, Niharika Srivastava (12) and Dena Grant (12) were inspired to start a Best Buddies chapter at White Station. They contacted the Best Buddies office of Tennessee, and at the time, they did not have the budget to fit a chapter at White Station. But over the summer, Srivastava and Grant were informed that they could start a chapter in the fall and be co-presidents together. The two were excited to be able to make a change in the way the special needs students at White Station experienced high school.

“I disliked how excluded the special needs department was from the rest of the school and wanted to change the fact that many students with intellectual and developmental disabilities do not have the opportunity to have a ‘normal’ high school experience,” Grant said.

Grant and Srivastava went right to work with spreading the word about the club, making Instagram and Twitter accounts, along with decorating their own bulletin board by the Senior Gym to keep the students updated with upcoming events. They have had an event with Best Buddies members every month and always plan to do something fun and engaging with buddies, like breakfast parties and Thanksgiving celebrations.

The club currently has 100 members with 16 buddies actively participating and plenty of peers to make the buddies feel welcome. Each buddy has at least one peer that has a job of keeping a close relationship with the buddy.

“I didn’t realize until this year that there was a significant barrier between those with intellectual and developmental disabilities and others,” Nhu Vo (12) said. “I am grateful for the many opportunities the organization has offered me.”

Any student can join Best Buddies as long as they are passionate about the mission of the club and really want to invest time in their buddy. Best Buddies is always looking for new members and is actively trying to make White Station a more inclusive and accepting environment for the special needs students at our school.