Be with Best Buddies!

True love may be hard to find, but multiple candidates are waiting in the Best Buddies student organization at Auburn University.

Auburn junior and membership coordinator Breanne Karow is one of the many students who are committed to building lifetime friendships with the intellectually disabled. Karow’s interest in special education has enabled her to spread true love to more than one person while staying evolved with this campus organization.

Best Buddies is an organization through the College of Education dedicated to establishing a global volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment and leadership development for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

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“It’s almost like a big brothers/big sisters program,” Karow said.

The buddies range in age from 17-year-old high school students to senior citizens in their 60’s.
Georgia native and psychology major Karow aspires to work as a therapist in early childhood intervention.

“I want to work with those with intellectual disabilities and help them mesh into society,” said Karow. “They hold a special place in my heart.”

The College of Education encourages those majoring in special education to join this organization because of the beneficial experiences and relationships that can be gained. According to Karow, most of members are from the College of Education, but students with all majors are involved and welcomed to join.

“Lots of teachers in the College of Education give projects with our organization for class credit,” Karow said.
“The experience and knowledge I gained gave me a good outlook of the type of job I want to have in the future,” Karow said.

Best Buddies can not only give experience in the field of special education, but can benefit all college students prior to entering the job field.

“When you get out in the real world, you will interact with people who have intellectual disabilities,” said Karow. “It would be nice to interact with them ahead of time and not think of them as just disabled, but as regular people.”
The college students spend time with the buddies doing various social activities, including going to the movies, the aquarium and the park.

Karow said that being in the organization is not stressful, but patience is a requirement when keeping the buddies focused on a task.

“It may be a little more work if we take them to the movies, but it’s worth making them feel good,” Karow said.

Acts of love by the members of Best Buddies can range from things as big as a party to as small as a smile.
They recently held a Christmas party at the home of Auburn University fraternity chapter FarmHouse. One of the FarmHouse members attended the event dressed as Santa Claus. The hailing sound of galloping reindeer feet came from other FarmHouse members as they skipped and stomped on the roof.

“If you are having a bad day, you can go say hey to one of them and it just makes your day,” Karow said.

The friendships built in Best Buddies are sustained by the natural love for others that members and their buddies share.

“Love has a lot to do with Best Buddies,” said Karow. “Yes, true love.”
“It really doesn’t matter who you are,” she said. “They are going to love you.”

Best Buddies engages participants in each of the 50 states. For more information on the Auburn chapter, go to www.auburn.edu/bestbuddies.