Junior Year- Who Wouldn't Want to be Me?

Junior year will rock. Do any of you remember your junior year of High School?

From the teachers, students to the clubs, junior year will be stellar for me. I will be the Buddy Director for Best Buddies this year and I am ready to speak up during meetings this year and a few days ago, when we had our first officer meeting; I definitely spoke up a lot and gave tons of input! According to my family, my speech is more clear then it was last year.

Junior year will hold more opportunities for me to be on Firebird Word, Chaparral's school announcements for Best Buddies and Lookout Club!

I can’t wait to continue my friendships with Blake Sykes, Taylor Taft, Hannah Hulst and now for the mainstream friends, officer Tyler Waller and more. Best Buddies will rock this year, thanks to our advisors, officer corps, members and program manager. The officer training in September 2011 will rock and I am ready to inspire everyone with a speech, if they do that again. I am aiming to try to give my speech without help. I know I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength!

I have got this plan to visit a few of my teachers I had sophomore year and take a few of my friends, including Blake Sykes to meet them.

I am ready to sing my heart out at Best Buddies meetings this year, and I will be the karaoke queen (KQ) of 2011-12 school year! The 1st picture is me singing at one of our meetings last year, which is where I was warming me voice up for the karaoke that happened at the conference.

I cannot wait one bit to see being an ambassador holds for me in terms of speaking engagements and the board in general. The ambassadors will rock and roll this year! Chaparral has two ambassadors, Matt Bloomfield and Lindsey Eaton, but our Buddy Director for a few years ago is an ambasssador. He is Taylor Ray.

I am predicting our sports teams will win State Championships and make us proud Firebirds!!!!

Best Buddies Arizona!

Presenters Julia Banahan, Lindsey Eaton and Lead Program Manager, Tim Lhotka

Best Buddies Arizona promotes opportunities for friendships and leadership with integrated employment for students and adults with disabilities. The group is led by Maggie Speer.

There are other staff members at the state office and they are Tim Bolen, Tim Lhotka and McKenzie Rosser. Fran Parker is also a staff member. Tim and Maggie are in charge of the Buddy Ambassador program. The ambassadors are students with disabilities, who are paired with a speech coach, a person without a disability. Julia Banahan, Dakota Johns, Drew Dysko and Greg Devorce are a few of the recent graduates from the ambassador board.

The program managers oversee chapters such as Higley HS, J.O Combs HS, ASU, Desert Ridge and Mountain Ridge HS. Obviously, Chaparral and many more chapters.

Arizona's fundraiser is the Spirit of Friendship, which is prom themed this year. The ambassadors and staff members were photographed for it this past June. Drew Dysko (Hamilton) and Lindsey Eaton (Chaparral), got a cute picture together. Drew was sitting on my lap and he was super cute.

Every March, Best Buddies has a Best Buddies Month Celebration where they honor outstanding chapters, leaders and buddy pairs. This quote was from the 2010-11 Best Buddies Month, I am so excited about the award ceremony and recognizing all of our outstanding chapters in Arizona!” says McKenzie Rosser, Program Manager. She continues, “it is just so rewarding to see the Buddy Pairs celebrating together.”

Statistics

Founder: Anthony Kennedy Shriver

Year Founded: 2000 (AZ) and 1989 (Best Buddies International)

# of chapters

High schools: 29 (closed 3).

Middle Schools: 3

Colleges: 2

Events:

Best Buddies Month Celebration

Spirit of Friendship Gala

Audi Quattro Golf Event (I saw this pictures on the 2nd BBAZ page...which is the one you have to friend.)

BNI Best Buddies Bowling

Social Media

Facebook

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Twitter

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