NMU students breaking down barriers
MARQUETTE — Best Buddies is a organization giving students the opportunity to make meaningful friendships with people who have Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. People with IDD are known to become isolated the older they get.
The Best Buddies program gives them an opportunity to meet people with the same interest as them in their community.
“We pair people up based on common interest and once they get their match we have a match party. Everyone meets and then from there they go on, they hang out based on what their interests are. Some of our pairings like to go hiking, others just like to watch football together. One pair likes to color and watch Disney movies every week,” said Seton Trost, President of Best Buddies.
Every month the Best Buddies program does something different to raise awareness for the different disabilities. This month they did something to honor Autism Awareness Month.
“We had an Autism Awareness panel and we had two speakers and we had a panel of different people who know a lot about the topic. Community members and Northern students could come and ask any questions they want,” Seton added.
This is one of the first organizations at NMU to bring awareness for different disabilities in the community.
“So its kind of new for our school to spread awareness about Down Syndrome or Autism. A lot of the community members have come to us afterwards and they’ve been so thankful we put on these events,” said Molly Harvey, Vice President of Best Buddies.
All of Best Buddies Social Events are opened to the community. To see when their next event is and what they are about visit our website click HERE.