150+ members mark new year for Best Buddies
Club sponsor Mari Mortensen decided to start Best Buddies seven years ago. Mortensen said, “It was seeing children with disabilities only sitting at one table in the cafeteria. There are great people at RB and I knew that if those great people talked to the students with disabilities, they could form friendships.”
Best Buddies is an international organization dedicated to promoting friendships between people with and without intellectual disabilities.
The president of Best Buddies, Bridget Brewer said, “My favorite part of Best Buddies are the friendships that form both with the people with disabilities and not.”
The club first started with 25 members. This year the club has grown to 156 members. Members can either choose to be an associate member or have a closer friendship with one of the buddies. An associate member is a person who chooses to go to the events and parties with the buddies, but do not personally have their own friend for outings.
Mortensen said, “We’ve never seen these kinds of numbers. I think it might be because other clubs closed. Because of the referendum we were worried that we would lose our second sponsor Ms. [Dawn] Soprych. Best Buddies International requires two sponsors, so if we lost Ms. Soprych, we would be in trouble. Thankfully we got to keep her for another year.”
The Riverside Brookfield Best Buddies club has had many students go on to college and become leaders. Mortensen said, “We call the special ed students buddies and the regular ed students peer buddies. All of us secretly think the peer buddies get the most out of it.”
The club has grown throughout the years. Mortensen said, “Best Buddies International always talks about our club here at RB. They call us the club on steroids because we have so many members.”
A few years ago Best Buddies won the international award for the top high school club.
The next event for the club is the matching part, where members learn who their buddies are. These are the matches between a peer buddy and a buddy which they will have for the rest of the year. The next event is the Halloween Party at the end of October. This is where everyone dresses up and celebrates the 31st as a club.
When asked about members of the club, Mortensen gave multiple stories of students who say that Best Buddies changed their lives.
When asked about the growth of the club and the other reasons behind it Mortensen says, “The reputation is finally coming through to the lower grades. It’s cool to be a nice person.”
Soccer rebounds after rough start
“A team is many voices with a single heart” is the motto of RB girls soccer. With their first win, bringing them one and four, they showed they worked as one. With the hard fought win over Ridgewood, they made a stand to turn the season around.
Varsity soccerp layer Bridget Brewer, who scored against Ridgewood, said, “The win was definitely something the team needed. We’re back on track and looking forward to the rest of the incredible season.”
They have eleven more games of the season and plenty of time to turn things around. They have mostly away games to play and so far have only won on the road.
Senior varsity soccer player, Emily Waas said, “We had a rough start but I can tell by the commitment and motivation of our team that we will strive from now on.”
Despite the rough start, it is not just all work for the entire season, but also fun. The team will be having Soccer Palooza on April 30th, 2011. This is open for anyone who wants to come out, watch or participate in the event. For more information about this event, visit coach Marisa Dobbertin at the Wellness Department.
Bulldogs take the plunge
March 9, 2010 by abbatacolak
Filed under News
On February 27th, 17 RB students took the plunge into the chilly waters of Lake Michigan to raise money for the Special Olympics. After facing the disappointment of the event’s cancellation last year due to dangerous waters, RB’s participants were excited to have this opportunity.
“The Polar Plunge raises money for a good cause and it’s something you don’t get to do everyday,” said junior Rachel Powell.
The participants had to raise a minimum of $75 in order to plunge and many RB students raised well over that amount. Sophomore Bridget Brewer was the top person, collecting $405.
“I’m really into Best Buddies and Special Olympics and I wanted to help out however I could,” said Brewer.
Altogether, Team Bulldog (the group’s chosen name for the plunge) raised over $1,500 for the cause and donations are still being collected through March 24th.
The RB participants plunged at Northwestern’s campus, one of the many sites in Illinois that hosted a Polar Plunge.
“Plungers” ran five at a time into a dug out pool of lake water on the beach. The participants’ family and friends, as well as the media stood around the pool to cheer them on and take pictures.
“It was cold and it was a bigger shock then I expected,” said junior Tyler Radek, “When we got out our hair immediately froze.”
There was also a costume contest held before the plunge. The particpants lined up to show off their creativity. The group that won was able to plunge first.
After the plunge had concluded, all of the participants and their friends and family were invited to a pizza party at a local restaurant. Team Bulldog is excited for the Special Olympics season that has already begun and is already looking forward to next year’s Polar Plunge.
“I’m definitely participating next year,” said Radek, “I’m hoping to get more people involved with it too.”
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