Best Buddies club enters its eighth year
Five years ago, Morgan McCranie started her freshman year at Trevecca. She joined several clubs on campus to try to find her place but it wasn't until she got involved with Best Buddies that she found her place.
“The first event I went to was a match party, and it was pumpkin carving. That’s where I met my buddy Allea, and she and I just hit it off. We talked a lot about One Direction, and we really bonded over that. I just remember leaving that event and walking away with a friend feeling this ‘aha’ moment after finding where I belonged at Trevecca,” said McCranie, senior special education major and president of Best Buddies.
Trevecca’s Best Buddies chapter is heading into its eighth year on campus.
Members are a part of the Best Buddies’ Citizens Program, which matches an adult with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) in a one-to-one friendship with a peer without a disability. This buddy pair develops a friendship like any other and promotes a more inclusive world for adults with and without disabilities.
For McCranie, what made Best Buddies stand out from other organizations on campus was the opportunity to be a friend.
“Best Buddies is all about friendship, and everyone deserves a friend,” said McCranie. “I felt very welcomed, and I had something I could contribute to the club and the community. I saw that it could make a difference, and there was a great purpose to it. It went beyond feeling like I had cool people to hang out. There was a mission behind it that I wanted to be a part of.”
The club kicks off with a match party where club members mingle and play games. There, matches are made and friendships are born. This year, the club is implementing buddy families for people who are interested but feel they can’t make a full commitment.
“For people who can’t meet the full commitment of being in a buddy pair, we could put them in a buddy family. Ideally, that person would be paired with a buddy pair. The purpose of that would be for the buddies to still have someone to hang out with if their buddy couldn’t come to an event. You’re paired with one person, but in Best Buddies, you’re free to be friends with everybody,” said McCranie.
Sandra Habib, a sophomore at Trevecca and vice president of Best Buddies, met her buddy Jason at last year’s match party.
“Last year, me and Jason played this game together and it was so funny. He said, ‘I want Sandra to be my buddy,’ and that’s how we became buddies,” Habib said.
As part of the club, peer buddies are required to contact their buddy once a week and hang out twice a week, though they are not limited to these requirements.
“It’s different for every buddy. Typically, me and Allea hang out more than two times a week. We text every day. We love to go out to eat and go to movies.” McCrainie said. “It’s just the typical things I would do with my friends.”
Habib and Jason hang out as much as they can. She likes to do activities based on what he likes.
“Jason loves plays and musicals. When Trevecca has a play going on, I try to bring him. He plays baseball so I’m going to one of his baseball games too,” said Habib.
For the buddies involved, one of the most valuable aspects of the club is the opportunity to be social.
“The biggest benefit for the buddies is that they are gaining normal social experiences that they deserve but that they aren’t given a lot of times because they have disabilities. Through those experiences, they’re getting to learn social skills and what it means to be in a friendship,” said McCranie. “It gives them more confidence in themselves because they realize there are people that care about them and love them. They’re being recognized as a person who deserves a loving friendship.”
Habib said from her experience, she leaves just as impacted as the buddies.
“Best Buddies has taught me a lot, and I have gained so much,” Habib said. “You may feel awkward at first, but if you’re respectful and if you just want to make friends, then this is where you should be.”
Every year, Best Buddies has a prom for all of the schools involved with the program in Nashville.
“We both love getting our nails done every year before prom. We have a tradition of going to get our nails done and then having a sleepover, and the next day we’ll get ready to go to prom,” said McCranie.
Contact Morgan McCranie at MSMccranie@trevecca.edu for information on how to get involved with Trevecca’s Best Buddies chapter.
By Anali Frias and Bailey Basham for the Trevechoes, Trevecca’s student newspaper where this article originally appeared
Media contact: Mandy Crow, mmcrow@trevecca.edu, 615-248-1695