Arrowhead High School’s Best Buddies club is hosting a Halloween match party on Wednesday, October 28, 2015, at North Campus in the commons at 4:30 PM. At this event, student participants will find out who their “buddy” is for the rest of the year.

Best Buddies is an extracurricular club at Arrowhead High School where students with intellectual disabilities form friendships with students who do not have intellectual disabilities.

The party will include team games and activities intended to create an enjoyable experience for all participants.

Arrowhead Senior Kelli Dittmann is the student president of Best Buddies.

Dittmann says, “I have the largest role and I’m basically in charge of planning and making sure everything goes well, and contacting students and parents. It’s a big job but I love it.”

Dittman says, “Quite a bit of planning goes into planning the events…We start planning months in advance. We want all our events to be successful and fun for everyone, so we have to put the time in.”

The club meets on the second Tuesday of every month before and after school in the study halls at North campus. Anyone can join the club by signing up online at bestbuddiesonline.org, where you can give the website information about your location in order to notify Arrowhead that you have joined. The advisors of the club are Mark Johnson, Eileen Dlobick, and Monique Olsen (all Arrowhead staff members).

According to Johnson, there are currently 131 students signed up to participate in Best Buddies at Arrowhead High School.

The club coordinates monthly activities at the high school, and it is highly encouraged by the club leaders that the students create plans weekly with their buddy outside of school.

There is a Best Buddies Dance Club that branches out from the core of the group, which performs at local schools as well as events held in the community. The club also hosts a talent show in January, where students in the club perform and share talents.

Johnson is a special education teacher at Arrowhead High School and says, “The biggest benefit [of being a part of Best Buddies] would be [seeing] the formation of a genuine friendships between students with and without intellectual disabilities.”

Johnson describes Best Buddies as, “A highly rewarding experience for all students. Participants make a commitment to contact each other once per week. This could be by telephone, email or face-to-face communication.  They also make plans to get together twice per month outside of the school day. This could be having lunch together, catching a movie, going shopping, attending sporting events, or similar activities. Students also attend the monthly group social activities as planned.”

“My favorite part of Best Buddies,” Dittman says, “is seeing how much fun everyone has. I love seeing new friendships being made. It’s just such a fun and accepting environment that makes it such an enjoyable club. It gives me a feeling that I can’t even explain, it feels my heart with so much joy and I hope more people will join.”