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.

Sophomore Ashley Ono was recruited by Principal Elden Esmeralda to start up Best Buddies on their campus. It didn’t take much to persuade her.

"Being in student government gives me the drive to make Kapolei High School a better place for the students," she said. There was a kind of segregation, as there is on most school campuses, where the students with intellectual disabilities and those without never interacted.

The Kapolei chapter has 39 members who get together for holiday parties, restaurant outings, or just sit together on campus during lunch. Last week, they organized a "Spread the Word to End the Word" campaign at school, asking students to pledge to stop saying the hurtful "r-word" (retarded or retard).

"I just like having new friends," Ono said. "I don’t see disabilities. I just see them. We enjoy socializing, emailing, and talking about going to the beach and other fun things like any teenager would do."

Kapolei’s student activities coordinator, Robin Ogino, knew about Best Buddies from his daughter, who is a member of her college chapter of the organization.

"You find that regardless of disabilities they all have similar interests, they are all teens and hopefully some of them will become true friends. Every high school should start a chapter," Ogino said.

The organization found an ally in Sen. Brickwood Galuteria (D, Downtown-Waikiki), who introduced a bill, SB 2269, to fund a Best Buddies program on Oahu at 15 middle and high schools. The bill stalled this session, but Galuteria is undeterred.

"Development of social skills best prepares students with intellectual disabilities for life on the job and in the community. We know this through our son Shawn, who has Down Syndrome and is entering his 37th year," Galuteria said. "Equally important is the experience provided those who chose to be a Best Bud."

The Best Buddies do things together as a group, but are organized as pairs. Ono’s match with Connor Sherman, 18, ended up working perfectly as both are interested in ocean distance swimming.

"It’s so nice to have him spend time with persons his own age because other kids his own age will not," said Connor’s dad, Dave Sherman. Connor and Ashley each wrote a speech and testified at the Legislature together in support of Galuteria’s bill.

"Before Best Buddies, most of Hawaii’s special education students spent the day at school in their own classroom," McCormick said. "This hasn’t been easy but we are trying hard every day."

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Reach Lee Cataluna at lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.