Riya Chinni

Best Buddies club members Anne Schuh, Sky Simpson, Molly Shaffer and Melissa Settle chat after the second call-out meeting. The club had two call-out meetings for this year, with in total over 150 students attending.

The first event for the Best Buddies club this school year will be a “match party” for its members on Sept. 6 where the buddies will meet their peers for the year for the first time, after match interviews that determined their partners.

The club will also have three new sponsors this year: English teacher Christine Ellis, Life Skills teacher Dana James and Life Skills teacher Brooke Reeder.

Ellis, who is new to both CHS and Best Buddies, said she is excited to get to know students here and watch them grow as people. She also said she wants to bring new ideas to the club with this shift in leadership.

Ellis said, “I think I want to see more weekend events for our buddies, I think it’s important for our parents to have a view into what we do… I think specifically having that flexibility for the parents to come in and see what we do, I want to see more of that. I definitely want to see more in terms of fundraising in our chapter…being able to have Carmel know what Best Buddies is, what we’re doing, bring that message of inclusion and friendship into the community (is what I want to see for the chapter).”

Anne Schuh, club president and senior, said the club is growing each year, and that this year is no exception to this trend, with over 150 students at the call-out meetings.

“I’m excited just based off of the call-out meetings, we’ve had a very large number of people come. We also have a lot of new freshman buddies,” she said. “I’m excited to see the growing number of people involved, the growing friendships. It’s really cool to see how the school has integrated the club—everybody knows about it and supports it.”