Spread the Word: Best Buddies

HSE Schools has lots and lots of incredible kids doing lots and lots of amazing things.  Our high school Best Buddies programs certainly fit this description.  Best Buddies has life-long impact on our students, and the relationships that are formed are nothing short of miraculous.

Please take time to read about the Best Buddies programs at Hamilton Southeastern High School and Fishers High School, and then take a few more minutes to watch two excellent videos.

Each one is only a minute long, but these will be two minutes well spent.  Our guess is they will put a smile on our face and remind you of how great our kids really are.

Enjoy!

From Risa Petty: Sticks, Stones, and Words

Anna and Cole

The Best Buddies program at Hamilton Southeastern High School has over 200 members.  The goal of Best Buddies is to create one-to-one friendships between students with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their general education peers.  The students get together as a club several times a year to help foster these friendships, which often continue beyond the walls of the high school and beyond the years of attendance.

This week, all of the HSE Best Buddies are focused on the Spread the Word to End the Word campaign.  This campaign is an ongoing effort by Special Olympics, Best Buddies, and our supporters to inspire respect and acceptance by raising the consciousness in society about the “R-word.” 

 

Our Best Buddies are doing what we can to end the use of this hurtful word that disrespects people with intellectual disabilities.  We know that the old saying about sticks and stones is absolutely wrong!  Words can and do hurt as well.

Please take a minute to watch the video below and consider what words can do.  If you are moved by this video, join our campaign and spread the word to end the word.

From Jenny Ourand: Friendship and Inclusion

Our chapter of Best Buddies at Fishers High School includes more than 75 students.  We have students paired in one-to-one friendship matches as well as students who commit to being associate members and come to events as they can.  

Our goal is to spread a message of friendship and inclusion throughout our school.  

This past week we participated in the national Spread the Word to End the Word campaign.  Our students made videos for announcements to explain the campaign and how the use of the R-Word can be hurtful.  We have a table available at lunch for students to take the pledge to end the use of the R-Word, as well as a banner they can sign.  

FHS Best Buddies with student signatures

The kids sell bracelets to increase awareness, and the week culminates in our annual spaghetti dinner.  We held the dinner on Tuesday, March 8th as a way to promote our club and come together in friendship.  

It was a blast!

Click Here for the Best Buddies Videos: 

HSHS: Spread the Word to End the Word

FHS: Announcement Video

Thanks for sharing, Risa and Jenny.  And thanks for making sure everyone feels involved and that all really means all in HSE Schools!

Respond to Risa: rpetty@hse.k12.in.us

Respond to Jenny: jourand@hse.k12.in.us

Have a great week!

Your HSE Teaching and Learning Team

• Jan Combs, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning
• Stephanie Loane, Director of Elementary Education
• Tom Bell, Director of Special Education
• Jeff Harrison, Director of Educational Technology
• Phil Lederach, Director of Secondary Education

A few final thoughts on friendship:

A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.  

     –Walter Winchell
Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.  

     –Khalil Gibran
The only way to have a friend is to be one.  

     –Ralph Waldo Emerson