Sign up now to be a Best Buddy
Released: October 31, 2007
Are you a student looking for volunteer hours? Are you friendly, compassionate and willing to share your time? If so, you are an ideal candidate for the Best Buddies Colleges program where you can partner with an adult and build a solid friendship through one-on-one interaction.
This semester there is a great need to increase student involvement in the Best Buddies program, with 27 adults from Jefferson waiting for a Best Buddy.
The Best Buddies Colleges program enables individuals to engage in one-to-one friendships with college students and provides individuals with intellectual disabilities the opportunity to have friends outside their environment.
"The best part of the program is that it provides people with cognitive disabilities the opportunity to socialize. The students are a positive role model for their buddies, showing them how to socialize, interact and have fun in a positive way," Simone DeVore, assistant professor of special education and faculty advisor for Best Buddies, said. "The program is also a great way to see how students interact in a nontraditional way. You see these students in their best modes, showing empathy and compassion."
UW-Whitewater students are able to participate in this program through the student organization, Best Buddies, and its involvement with St. Coletta of Wisconsin, an organization dedicated to supporting individuals with developmental and other disabilities. From holiday parties to movies and picnics, relationships form through regular interaction and provide positive experiences for al involved.
"Overall, this program has been a very rewarding and satisfying experience for the Buddies at St. Coletta. It helps build self-esteem and the adults enjoy that one-to-one friendship," Donna Gruszynski, volunteer coordinator at St. Coletta, said. "Friendship is very important to the adults and it makes the adults feel valued to have a university friend."
Gruszynski added there has been great feedback from the adults participating in the program at St. Coletta. The outings and activities are a positive experience for the adults and something they get very excited about. She said that the Best Buddies program at St. Coletta is one of the most popular things to be involved in, where participants see themselves as having special status. The program is well established and organized and something the adults look forward to year after year.
For more information on how to volunteer, contact Sara Coyne, Best Buddies coordinator at UW-Whitewater, at coynesl01@uww.edu.
- Patti Schenker,schenkerpl07@uww.edu
