Over the summer the University of Indiana held the annual Best Buddies leadership conference, inviting students from all over the world to learn how to become future presidents of their high school programs. Seniors Kate Abbatacola and Kelly Sherman went to the conference to represent Riverside Brookfield High School, and accept their highly praised award.

For the second time in its four year history at RB, the Best Buddies program came away with the “Outstanding Chapter” award. The award is given to just twenty two schools out of the entire Best Buddies program. That includes all fifty states, and several countries such as Ireland, Russia, Greece and Poland.

“Its great,” said Sherman, “What people don’t realize is that we’re top dogs when it comes to Best Buddies. They constantly used us as examples in all the workshops we attended.”

Sherman and Abbatacola attended five workshops a day for three days straight, developing new skills and ideas for the current year.

“It was nice to meet people from other states and countries who share the same passion for Best Buddies that we do,” said Abbatacola, “My favorite part was the 80’s dance. It was like homecoming times a million. I would love to be able to do that for our program.”

The possibilities are endless and with a new group of buddies already being interviewed and paired up, this year is off to a great start.

“We’re really excited about this upcoming year and we’re planning on being and outstanding chapter once again,” said Abbatacola.