Despite the fact that there are only four months of school remaining in the 2022-2023 school year, there are still quite a few events and activities that the Best Buddies Club and STAR students have to look forward to.
To begin, the Best Buddies board alongside their advisor Mrs. Hart, planned a St. Patrick’s day party on March 16th. This party consisted of a wide selection of homemade baked goods ranging from Irish thumbprint cookies to Lucky Charm cereal rice crispy bars. While the STARs and members of the Best Buddies club snacked on the baked treats, they also wore green in celebration of the Irish holiday while building leprechaun traps out of recycled materials which were mysteriously tampered with the following morning.
Best Buddies secretary, Summer Conover said, “The party was so much fun! We all had a great time and the food selection was great”
Following the St. Patrick’s day party, there is a lot planned for the month of April which is Autism Acceptance month. In continuation of last year’s puzzle piece cookie sale, the STAR students will again spend some time baking sugar cookies shaped as puzzle pieces symbolizing complexity of the Autism spectrum. On April 20th, the members of the Best Buddies club plan to come together with the STAR students to help decorate the cookies in frosting colors of bright yellow, red, green, and blue all of which are the iconic colors associated with Autism awareness.
On this day, the STAR and Best Buddies look forward to spending time all together in the annex’s kitchen while listening to great music typically played by Hudson Bricker.
Hudson Bricker says he is “very excited to bake and decorate cookies and socialize with best buddies and to be the DJ at the hangouts and play good music [and to] spread good vibes.”
On April 21st, the club plans to set up a table in the glass hallway and sell their cookies in an attempt to raise money for Autism NJ and each cookie will be sold for $1.
Julianna Danial, Vice President of the Best Buddies Club said, “The cookie sale last year was such a fun opportunity to raise money during Autism Awareness month with the STAR students! The cookies sold super fast and I can’t wait to do it again this year!”
Students view the month of May as the time where the year is finally starting to unravel. AP exams are in the very beginning of the month and students start to realize how quickly June will come. With that being said, students are finally starting to release some of their built up stress of the year. The month of May is also globally recognized as the month of Mental Health Awareness. The Best Buddies board hopes to organize an event where a therapy dog can come in and spend some time with the STAR students. In addition to this, there are also plans of spending a lot of time outside by holding picnics on the turf.
Finally, in June, the buddies and the STARS hope to have an end of the year “goodbye” party for the graduating students. Overall, the Best Buddies club and the STAR students are anxiously planning the rest of the school year and have very high hopes for the activities in mind.