Best Buddies pairings build friendship, understanding

By Lee Cataluna

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Mar 18, 2012

~~<p>First off, Best Buddies is not a service club. Everyone who talks about the program that pairs up high school students who have intellectual or developmental disabilities with peers who do not says that the relationships that form are amazingly, beautifully, mutually beneficial.</p>
<p>This year, Kapolei High School became the first school on Oahu to establish a chapter of Best Buddies International, an organization founded in 1989 by Anthony Shriver, son of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the founder of Special Olympics. In 2008, volunteer Michael McCormick, a retired contractor, got a small county grant to establish chapters in five Maui schools. Buoyed by the positive reactions from participants, McCormick set his sights on expanding statewide.</p>
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First off, Best Buddies is not a service club. Everyone who talks about the program that pairs up high school students who have intellectual or developmental disabilities with peers who do not says that the relationships that form are amazingly, beautifully, mutually beneficial.

This year, Kapolei High School became the first school on Oahu to establish a chapter of Best Buddies International, an organization founded in 1989 by Anthony Shriver, son of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the founder of Special Olympics. In 2008, volunteer Michael McCormick, a retired contractor, got a small county grant to establish chapters in five Maui schools. Buoyed by the positive reactions from participants, McCormick set his sights on expanding statewide. Login for more...