Fall is for Forming Friendships

During the month of October, Best Buddies High School Chapters all over California held their Match Parties where they announced this year’s one-to-one Buddy Pairs

By Jessica Foults, Program Supervisor

The Fall is always an exciting season for the Best Buddies Chapters worldwide.  During the month of October, the Best Buddies Friendship Programs host local and regional ‘Match Parties” where they invite all of their chapter members to attend a fun activity where the one-to-one friendships between Buddies and Peer Buddies are announced.

Prior to the Match Parties, our Best Buddies friendship programs spend several months recruiting, interviewing, and training their new members.  Social events are planned that act as ice breakers for the students and encourage interaction through structured activities.

Our friendship programs enjoy planning their Match Parties by tying in creative themes from the October Halloween Holiday to creative games that challenge their members to put together riddles and puzzles to determine their match.

Several Highlights from our regional High School Friendship Programs included:

Esperanza High School’s Parent Night Match Party - Students and parents were treated to refreshments, an informational Best Buddies video, and a jelly bean raffle.

Diamond Bar High School’s annual Parent Lunch Match Party - Participants prepared a slideshow of their members, a buffet lunch, and took fun photos of the Buddy pairs.  Many of our programs choose to include parents at their Match Parties to help facilitate communication between the families of the Peer Buddies (General Education Students) and the Buddies (students in Special Education). 

Escondido High School in San Diego had a noteworthy Match Party where they held a Hawaiian Luau, and encouraged the Buddy Pairs to create secret handshakes and dances to share with the group!

The Escondido High School Match Party theme was a Hawaiian Luau!