On September 14, the annual Best Buddies Champion of the Year campaign officially kicked off. According to the Best Buddies website, its Champions will continue to generate future friendships, and make life more inclusive for people with and without disabilities.

I have been nominated for this event. Everyone who is nominated and who is competing against me, have some type of role in Best Buddies in the state of Indiana. They are nominated by someone who has seen their work with Best Buddies or with people with IDD, by emailing Natalie Siebert, state director for Best Buddies Indiana, and stating who they would like to nominate. Then she emails the person nominated to inform them about their nomination. For me, there are many potential reasons why I was nominated. I do not know exactly why I was nominated, but I feel like I was potentially nominated due to my service and being involved in the club. I will also be continuing my passion by majoring in Special Education at Marian University. 

First off I will have to raise money. All of the money I raise will go towards Best Buddies Indiana to make new friendships, opening up new chapters at school, and spreading inclusion around. All of the other Champions will also work to raise money for their campaign, through donation, auction items, and sponsorships. 

The Champion of the Year website states, “Through raising funds and awareness for Best Buddies, our Champions will generate countless opportunities for friendships, jobs, leadership development, and inclusive living for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). At the campaign’s conclusion, we will join together to celebrate each other’s accomplishments, honor the Champions’ collective impact, and name the ultimate Champion of the Year!” 

The campaign runs for eight weeks. With activities like getting donations, auctioning items, and receiving sponsorships. On November 14 at 7:30 P.M, make sure to tune in to be able to see who will be named Best Buddies Champion of the Year. 

As part of this campaign, I had to write information about my involvement with Best Buddies. Here is my statement for this campaign: “So this all started my sophomore year thinking if I should join best buddies and I thought I would give it a try! Now look…..I’m a Champion of the Year?! But here’s one of my stories on why I love this nonprofit organization, I have met this amazing girl, Ella, last school year when I would help in her class and I loved it! But now I babysit her and we do everything together it’s like we are best friends and even sisters! We have memories like facetime, being a page at the state house, snow whirl, seeing musicals, NCYC, and so many more memories! By meeting new people like Ella, I have been able to do so many amazing things with her! By getting close to kids like this you can become their best friend and stay connected. Whenever I volunteer for things like this either it’s best buddies at school or not, or even helping out at Hannah and Friends in South Bend, which I have gotten close to a lot of those kids, and even helping out with SPRED at church if they have one! I have also made so many friends just by meeting people that are involved in Best Buddies everywhere! If you could it does not have to be a lot, please donate to my Champion of the Year campaign, and cannot wait to have my new friend Anna Inter, on my side as my campaign manager!”

To help me with this campaign, you can click on the link provided and donate any amount of money to my page to help me get the Champion of the Year Award. 

https://www.bestbuddieschampion.org/indiana/supporting/#katelynnhexamer