February 28, 2016
Cordova, TN

Woodland Hills Event Center

Best Buddies Prom… it’s kind of a big deal. It’s the day that every Buddy Pair across Tennessee looks forward to all year long – and for good reason. It’s an enormous party where every single guest gets the five-star treatment!

From the outward appearance, it may seem like any other Prom. But a closer look shows something much more meaningful. On this special day, teens and young adults with and without intellectual disabilities laugh, dance, sing and have fun together. There’s no judgment, ridicule, bullying or isolation. Just PURE JOY. Everyone is welcome, and everyone is equal. It’s a snapshot of true friendships between individuals of all abilities. And once the party’s over, the friendships last forever. That’s a pretty big deal.

EVENT SCHEDULE:

5:00 pm – 8:00 pm: Best Buddies Prom: Nashville

February 21, 2016
Nashville, TN

Bridgestone Arena

Best Buddies Prom… it’s kind of a big deal. It’s the day that every Buddy Pair across Tennessee looks forward to all year long – and for good reason. It’s an enormous party where every single guest gets the five-star treatment!

From the outward appearance, it may seem like any other Prom. But a closer look shows something much more meaningful. On this special day, over 2,000 teens and young adults with and without intellectual disabilities laugh, dance, sing and have fun together. There’s no judgment, ridicule, bullying or isolation. Just PURE JOY. Everyone is welcome, and everyone is equal. It’s a snapshot of true friendships between individuals of all abilities. And once the party’s over, the friendships last forever. That’s a pretty big deal.

EVENT SCHEDULE:

4:00 pm – 7:00 pm: Best Buddies Prom: Nashville

Dallas
4455 LBJ Freeway, Suite 902
Dallas, TX 75244
Phone: 214.377.7006
Fax: 214.242.9895

State Director – Sharyn Casey

Deputy Director, Development – Cynthia Olson
Program Manager, School Friendship – Samantha Tammaro

Houston
6212 N Main Street, Unit C
Houston, TX 77009
Phone: 832.673.0305
Fax: 832.673.0304

Area Director – Arden Stone

Deputy Director, Programs – Anne Hopton-Jones
Program Manager, School Friendship – Taylor Amos

Brentwood
116 Wilson Pike Circle, Suite 201
Brentwood, TN 37027
Phone: 615.891.2046
Fax: 615.807.3104

State Director – Anneliese Barron
Director of Development – Jennifer Peyser
Director, Programs – Kristen Starcher

Operations Coordinator – Teri Edmonson
Office Assistant – Michael Maguire
Program Manager, Adult Friendship- Jenna Sanders
Program Managers, School Friendship –  Amy Pogue, Melissa Naff, Michelle Eckland & Will Macon
Program Supervisor, Jobs – Laura Berry
Employment Consultant – Brian McNulty

Memphis
9700 Village Circle, Suite 300
Lakeland, TN 38002
Phone: 901.937.0005

Area Director – Melissa Todd

Program Manager, School Friendship – Casey Newcomb

Chicago
101 West Grand Avenue, Suite 400
Chicago, IL 60654
Phone: 312.828.9313
Fax: 312.828.9421
Toll Free: 1.877.60.BUDDY (28339)

State Director – Debra Karch

Program Supervisor, School Friendship – Kaitlyn Rose
Director, Operations – Joshua Kaye
Executive Assistant– Jeffrey Matthews
Programs Assistant – Dana Wax
Program Manager, Adult Friendship – Lauren Mislove
Program Managers, School Friendship – Morgan Roberts & Shannon Feeney
Director, Jobs – Mia Pollock
Employment Consultants – Sari Eilon, Molly Stover & Emma Zagar

Central Illinois
1717 West Candletree Drive, Unit C
Peoria, IL 61614
Phone: 309.966.3635
Fax: 309.215.5344
Illinois@bestbuddies.org
www.bestbuddies.org/Illinois/

Area Director – Jamie Davis
Development Coordinator – Taylor Lodewegen

Central Florida
105 East Robinson Street, Suite 540
Orlando, FL 32801
Phone (407) 898–0787
Fax (407) 367–4354

State Director – Kelly Wagner
Director, Programs – Cary Ombres
Director, Operations – Mae Mastrorio
Deputy Director, Operations – Emily Hunt
Area Director – Lisa Swindon
Program Managers, School Friendship – Andrea Tessaro & Micah Chiero

Broward
3450 Lakeside Drive, Suite 304
Miramar, FL 33027
Phone: (954) 449–6522
Fax: (954) 894–9974

Area Director – Martha Lagarde
Program Supervisor, Jobs – Ray Bell
Program Managers, School Friendship – Stefania Tattoli & Betty Busot

Jacksonville
4130 Salisbury Road, Suite 2200
Jacksonville, FL 32216
Phone: (904) 296–0510
Fax: (904) 296–0511

Area Director – Erika Hatch
Program Managers, School Friendship – Mary Pippin & Jessica Gray

Miami
100 Southeast Second Street, Suite 2200
Miami, FL 33131
Phone (305) 374–2233
Fax (305) 374–5305
Toll-Free (800) 89–BUDDY

Regional Director, (South Florida) – Heather Gray
Area Director, (South Florida) – Stephanie Chapman
Deputy Director, Jobs – Nikki Childree
Supervisor, Jobs (Panther Life Project) – Raquel Pargas
Program Supervisor, Jobs (STEP Ahead) – Lazara Ballester
Employment Consultants – Tessie Gonzalez & Faouzia Sarrai Kaelin
Program Manager, Adult Friendship – Erika Hoyos
Program Managers, School Friendship – Kenneth Garrett & Kelli Miller

Palm Beach
784 Us Highway 1, Suite 20
North Palm Beach, FL 33408
Phone (561) 972–5312
Toll-Free (800) 89-BUDDY

Area Director – Megan Moye
Program Managers, School Friendship – Toi Slydell & Jessica George

Tampa
200 South Hoover Boulevard, Suite 191
Tampa, FL 33609
Phone: (813) 254–9025
Fax: (813) 254–9085

Area Director – Vallye Adams
Development Coordinator – Patty Racener
Program Manager School Friendship – Cydni Weiner & Jaclyn Clark

Best Buddies Month is a time for Best Buddies participants to reflect on the importance of friendship, jobs, and the development of future leaders. Most importantly, it is a time to show the world the significance of these essentials in every individual’s life.

What began in 1993 as a one-day event has become a month-long celebration of the Best Buddies mission. 2016 marks our 27th Anniversary, and we want you to celebrate the impact our friendship, jobs, and leadership development programs have had on your life.

In addition to all the fun and exciting activities your chapter has planned, we’re asking you to celebrate Best Buddies Month by doing one, or all, of the following:

1) Sign up for the Best Buddies Friendship Walk to help create communities of inclusion

Over the years, our walks have made a profound impact in communities nationwide, especially for individuals with IDD. Every Best Buddies Friendship Walk promotes an atmosphere for new friendships, promises opportunities, and most of all, inclusion for all people. This is where you can make a difference! You can make new friends, and promote community inclusion simply by participating in this year’s Best Buddies Friendship Walk.

Sign up for a Best Buddies Friendship Walk event near you at www.bestbuddiesfriendshipwalk.org

Tell your friends you’ve signed up via Facebook, Twitter & Instagram with #BBFW2016

2) Share your friendship “Buddy-versary”

Whether you’ve been matched for a few months, or 10 years, we want you to celebrate being a part of Best Buddies by sharing a photo of you and your buddy holding up a sign with the time you’ve been friends. Every friendship counts!

We will use select photos for a collage to be featured at the end of the month!

Send us pictures on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram with #Buddyversary

3) Wear your Best Buddies gear with pride

What better way to display the power of our mission than by wearing your Haring tee? It’s a conversation starter, and one of our biggest creators of awareness, besides you. Don’t have Best Buddies gear? Visit our merchandise store at shop.bestbuddies.org.

Send us pictures on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram with #BestBuddiesMonth

4) Take the Spread the Word to End the Word pledge and promote respectful language for everyone

Spread the Word to End the Word Day is on March 2, 2016, but our campaign doesn’t start or end there. Pledge to end the derogatory use of the word “retard(ed)” by taking the pledge at www.r-word.org, and encourage your friends and family to join our campaign to promote respectful language.

I pledge #RESPECT thru my words & actions. Will you? Pledge now to create communities of inclusion for people with IDD www.r-word.org

5) Download & Share the #BestBuddiesMonth calendar for more ideas!

How did you learn about Best Buddies?

Tatum: I learned about Best Buddies through my mom; she was an ASL interpreter at my high school about 12 years ago and shared an office with Greenway’s chapter advisor, Barbara Carlson, and got to witness several club meetings. My mom talked about what an amazing club it is, and encouraged my sisters and me to it once we attend high school.

Carter: I found out about Best Buddies through Tatum. She talked to me about it at lunch and asked for me to join.

Best Buddies: What does Best Buddies mean to you?  

Tatum: Best Buddies means several things to me. It means friendship, inclusion, and an endless amount of happiness. The friendships I have made through this organization are the ones I’ll cherish for the rest of my life, and has created an internal happiness that I won’t find anywhere else.

Carter: What Best Buddies means to me is making friends and being able to fit in.

Best Buddies: What have you learned from your involvement in Best Buddies?

Tatum: Best Buddies has taught me that having different abilities in a friendship shouldn’t matter. No matter the challenges that Carter may face in life, our friendship isn’t determined by them. I have learned to be more patient, accepting, and understanding of all people, and I give all the credit to Best Buddies.

Carter: From Best Buddies I have learned many social skills like being able to socialize with my peers. I also have learned how to be more mature.

Best Buddies: How has Best Buddies changed your life?

Tatum: My life has changed because of Best Buddies in almost every way. Before joining this organization I dreamed of becoming a performer. After Best Buddies, I dream of becoming a speech pathologist. Joining my school’s chapter and meeting all the people involved in the organization has made me realize that I need to help and return the favor to the community that changed how I view everything in my life. I want to be of service to my community.

Carter: Best Buddies has changed my life in making me feel included and feel like a high schooler.

Best Buddies: Why would you encourage others to get involved in Best Buddies?

Tatum: I encourage others to start being involved in Best Buddies in hopes that their lives will be turned upside down in the best way possible, like it did to me. I also want people to be involved to see what great things the IDD community can do and to have them be included in today’s society, for the sole purpose of having these great individuals be appreciated in the world.

Carter: I would want others to join Best Buddies because it’s fun and makes me feel happy!

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Visit bestbuddies.org/celebrate to learn how you can join our #BestBuddiesMonth celebration throughout the month of March!

Best Buddies International, Special Olympics, and supporters from around the world will unite on March 2^nd for the eighth annual Spread the Word to End the Word® Day. This day gathers people committed to a more inclusive world to build awareness for our society to stop and think about its use of the R-word and rally people to pledge respect toward all individuals, making the world a more accepting and inclusive place for all people, especially those with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).

Across the nation, Best Buddies chapter leaders and volunteers are hosting engaging events which challenge their community to think inclusively, share respectful language, and to act more mindfully in the way that they speak.

Across the south, chapters are engaging creative methods to draw attention to hurtful use of the r-word. At the University of South Florida, Best Buddies chapter members are working to ensure that everyone on campus knows the importance of the Spread the Word to End the Word campaign. They have organized three booths on different parts of their campus in order to maximize their exposure. At one booth, they are selling Spread the Word pins for one dollar. At the second booth, they are creating a giant banner, where people can sign their name and pledge to End the R-Word. At the final booth, they are giving out purple ribbons to everyone, in order to show support for the Best Buddies mission of friendship. The campus is sure to be fully engaged and fully participating in changing language in South Florida!

At Bloomingdale High School, outside of Tampa, members created their own Spread the Word to End the Word public service announcement. They aired their PSA over the morning announcements, so that all of the students are aware of the importance of the campaign. At lunch, they created a banner, with the names of all of the students who pledged to End the R-Word. The banner is now displayed in the cafeteria, in order to remind the students of their pledge and to keep the going for the rest of the school year!

Nova Southeastern University Best Buddies Chapter in Davie Florida will be having a week of events for Spread the Word to End the Word. Demetrius “Big Money” Dozier, a Best Buddies Global Ambassador, will be sharing a speech about the importance of ending the use of the R-word. Members are encouraged to take the pledge

In Tennessee at Brentwood High School outside Nashville, chapter members spent their lunch period last week making posters and today – the day of the Spread the Word campaign – they are filming a video and placing the posters around their school to remind people of the pledge and its purpose. The school will also be holding an assembly and the chapter will speak to their peers and showcase their video. Chapter leaders are meeting separately with faculty to ensure all students, staff, and community members are aware of the campaign and its goals.

In the North, chapters are engaging students in and outside of Beset Buddies chapters to join the campaign. At the University of Maine, leaders are encouraging students on campus and members of the community to share their reasons for pledging to end the use of the r-word by taking pictures and posting on social media. They are collecting testimonies of reasons to eradicate use of hurtful language by also engaging sororities and fraternities on campus to share further awareness. The brothers of Pi Kappa Phi on campus all took the pledge to eliminate the r-word by signing their own banner they created, which reads “ΠΚΦ Spreads the Word to End the Word!”

At Miami University of Ohio, chapter members are greeting their peers on campus and commuters with warm coffee and asking people to stop and listen so they can share the purpose of the Spread the Word campaign.

In New York, North Rockland High School on Long Island is once again sharing their efforts to eradicate the r-word with their annual R-Word Stomp. Each year the Best Buddies Promoters chapter on campus creates an innovative, exciting video each year to promote the campaign. This year they engaged their entire school community to produce this exciting video:

At Indiana University in Bloomington, chapter members spent the week gearing up for an engaging Spread the Word to End the Word event by creating their own creative banner. Chapter members gathered with their buddies from their host site at Stonebelt to paint over the R-word on their own special banner. They are encouraging peers and community members from all over campus to join them today to pledge their name to the chapter’s unique banner in a fun, engaging way to share respect!

Out west, the mission of the campaign is spreading beyond school campuses. In California, the Best Buddies Friendship Walk: Bay Area Committee is spreading the word about the campaign; they pledged their support and are working to educate their community about the hurtful use of the r-word.

At Viewmont High School, outside Salt Lake City in Utah, leaders will gather at lunch for their Second Annual Pledge Party. Best Buddies members will rally together to encourage their peers and teachers to pledge their support in eliminating the derogatory r-word from everyday language.

“This is such a great cause, Spread the Word is easily my favorite day of the year! It is the best thing ever to see peers and teachers serving as advocates and showing respect for our students and those affected by this word.” – Sarah Dennison, Viewmont H.S. Best Buddies Advisor

Best Buddies is excited to see how you celebrate today to showcase the need to change hurtful language, to educate your peers and community about the effects their language choice has on our society, and to be a leader in a movement for a more inclusive, accepting world! Share your story with us by pledging:

I pledge #Respect thru my words & actions. Will you? Pledge now to change the game for people with IDD at r-word.org.

The 2016 Best Buddies Connecticut Buddy Ball is an exciting and fulfilling night of celebration, created to honor each and every one of our chapter members for the amazing work they do all year long! This formal event, which is open to all registered members of our official school friendship chapters in our state, is a true dedication to their efforts in spreading the Best Buddies mission throughout their local schools and communities. The Buddy Ball brings together chapter members from across the state, those with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities, from our middle, high school, and college programs. It signifies the commitment of our organization, the dedication of our volunteers, and the pure joy of friendship and inclusion. The Buddy Ball is an event of happiness, a true testament to the over 3,700 student volunteers we are lucky to call our Best Buddies family.

The 2016 Best Buddies Connecticut Buddy Ball is planned to be a true red carpet event, decked out from start to finish in the dazzling wonders of Hollywood. Your appearance on the red carpet signifies your work in our mission, and brings us together as one. ALL official school chapter members are welcome! If you are a registered member of a chapter in Best Buddies CT, you must complete the registration form below to attend this event. You may only purchase one ticket at a time, each costing $25.00. All purchases must be made online.

*Please note, this event is for student and advisor chapter members only! If you are a student requiring a support staff, please indict this in your registration form. All parents/guardians assisting in driving to this event will be contacted directly for specifics on activities to do during the duration of the event.

March 31, 2016
Scottsdale, AZ

Well & Being Spa Entrance at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess
7575 East Princess Drive
Scottsdale, AZ 85255

Event Schedule:
6:30 – 7:30am

For the fourth consecutive year, i4cp hosts a special Best Buddies Friendship Walk – join us as we walk to raise awareness and move toward creating a society in which we are all celebrated and valued for our differences.

Start your day by joining Best Buddies on a 30/60 minute walk led by two qualified yoga instructors. The course has a 3K/5K route option and entirely wheelchair accessible. The walk will incorporate light stretching/yoga and will be adapted based on the needs and activity levels of the participants. Runners welcome!

Contact Us:

For more information on the 2016 i4cp Conference Walk, please contact Rachel Lazarus at rachellazarus@bestbuddies.org