Haine chapter of Best Buddies strikes fun and friendship with fundraiser walk
CRANBERRY TWP — The Best Buddies chapter at Haine Elementary and Haine Middle schools hosted a walk Saturday, May 30, to raise money for its parent Pittsburgh organization, but several of the attendees said the walk itself was an activity they enjoyed.
The chapter in Seneca Valley School District hosts events that get children of different abilities together for inclusive activities, which Best Buddies helps support. But three-year member Grace Kirschbaum, a fifth-grade student at Haine Middle School, said she had been eagerly awaiting the Best Buddies Walk.
“The walk is my favorite,” Grace said from under the North Boundary Shelter at North Boundary Park on Saturday. “I like to make people smile and help people.”
Saturday was the third annual Best Buddies Walk hosted by the Haine schools, but it garnered attendance from other community members and students from other schools in Seneca Valley School District.
Kathy Mahon, lead adviser for the Haine Elementary and Haine Middle schools’ chapter of Best Buddies, said 100% of funds raised at the walk supports the Pittsburgh Best Buddies organization. There are 88 students in the Haine chapter of the program, and according to Mahon, they all participate together in structured activities that promote inclusion of different abilities. Some group activities include pumpkin painting, rock painting and Fun Fridays, and the middle school has a unified bocce team.
The evidence for the inclusive nature of the group was all around the park pavilion Saturday, where students tossed discs to one another, sketched each other’s outlines in chalk on the sidewalk and played together in the grass.
“I’ve been there for years and we have always been an inclusive environment,” Mahon said of Haine Elementary School, where she works as a student psychologist. “This brings the kids even closer.”
Best Buddies International is a nonprofit dedicated to creating opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment, leadership development, inclusive living and family support for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Its programs aim to empower people with disabilities to form meaningful friendships, secure jobs, improve communication skills and live independently, according to the organization’s website.
Best Buddies Pittsburgh has around 66 chapters from the western end of Pennsylvania all the way to State College. Elise Hassinger, program manager for Best Buddies Pittsburgh, said the chapters collaborate at events once in a while, including at a spring event that takes place annually in Pittsburgh, but individual chapters helping the way Seneca Valley’s does is also appreciated.
“It’s amazing, the support is phenomenal,” Hassinger said. “We’re so grateful to our schools, they are so passionate and they have such great ideas.”
Fallon DeRiggi, development director for Best Buddies Pittsburgh, added that the support shown for the Haine schools chapter over the past three years of the walk has shown that the program is making a difference in the school. The walk has become an anticipated event for the Best Buddies Pittsburgh staff.
“This is such a great day, we look forward to this,” DeRiggi said.
After an hour-and-a-half of playing and communing, walkers made their way down a trail around North Boundary Park, before coming back to the shelter. The event also boasted raffle baskets, which also helped raise money for Best Buddies Pittsburgh.
Malik Abdelqader, a third-grade student at Haine Elementary School, was one of the first children to make it back from the trail, and also said he enjoyed the annual walk. But the programs he gets to do with friends from school are his favorite part of being in Best Buddies.
“I like bocce, baseball, basketball, soccer,” Malik said. “I like to play with my friends.”
