College is the perfect time to explore new things, meet new people and get involved with the community. At Elizabethtown College, there are numerous clubs to choose from including Best Buddies, whose intent is to establish one-on-one friendships for persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Best Buddies strives to build meaningful connections between students and continues to integrate their mission statement of “establish[ing] a global volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment, and leadership development for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD)” every day, according to the Best Buddies website.

This semester, Best Buddies is looking forward to building new friendships and expanding their community. Best Buddies Public Relations Chair and Sophomore Merzadee Buys said, “One of our goals for this semester is to bring the community together to allow new buddy pairs to bond.”

Best Buddies is the world’s largest organization dedicated to ending social, physical and economic isolation of people with IDD. Their goal intends to build connections meant not only for friendships but for job opportunities and life experiences for the buddies. They teach inclusiveness and leadership development skills to members to set them up for success.

Not only is Best Buddies a significant club on campus at Etown, but they also operate in many parts of the world and make significant impacts globally. The worldwide club includes over 95 thousand students and a total of 2,938 chapters. They are present in all 50 states and 47 different countries. Etown makes up a small but important fraction of those statistics.

With the busy holiday season approaching quickly, Best Buddies has multiple themed events coming up. This month, Homecoming weekend events for the club will be held from Oct. 14-16. The club is also hosting their annual Halloween party Oct. 28 from 5-6:30 p.m. “My favorite Best Buddies memory was the Halloween party last year,” Buys said. “I had so much fun and it was great to see everyones costumes.”

Also, be on the lookout for their Friendsgiving event on Nov. 20.

The club hosts multiple other events throughout the year to bring buddies together. Other activities and events include things such as movie nights, cupcake decorating, bingo, yoga and much more.

Best Buddies meets once a month where members are expected to build strong connections and valuable friendships with their buddies that are meant to last a lifetime. General members of the club are welcome to join and participate in events as well as attending monthly meetings. Etown students interested in joining Best Buddies or learning more can contact the club via email at bestbuddies@etown.edu.

Also, check out Best Buddies Instagram page to keep up on current events and team meetings. Their Instagram handle is @etown_bestbuddies.

The current club officers are Etown students Erin Wittenburg as President, Nic Demarco as Vice President, Courtney Westman as Buddy Pair Director, Bella Mendez as Treasurer, Merzadee Buys as Public Relations Chair, Ashley Hutton as Fundraising Representative, Nicole Ringwald as Secretary and Gracie Marino as Co-Fundraising Chair. All officers are happy to discuss potential interest in joining Best Buddies.

“My favorite part of Best Buddies is making the buddy’s day by being a part of their life,” Buys said. “My buddy has definitely made a long-lasting impact on me and our friendship.”