July has started with a bang for Best Buddies Australia with our first Annual Leadership Conference for High Schools in NSW. The themes of the day were Leadership and Social Inclusion. As we highlighted to our volunteers, the fantastic thing about Best Buddies is that to really make a difference in these areas, all you need to do is see your buddy! The buddy pair highlighted in this newsletter, Jurgen and Owen are a shining example of this. Perhaps someone will nominate them for the inaugural Buddy Pair Of The Year 2009 Award? (for more on this click 'Nominate' on our home page)
The leadership day was a huge success, my personal highlight of the day was seeing all the students arrive in their unusual 'buses.' A huge thanks to all our supporters, especially Kell & Rigby, Red Balloon, Self Advocacy Sydney Inc, Ms Deborah Hutton and all our wonderful volunteers, without whom the day would not have been possible. Please read the article here for the complete lowdown.
We continue to grow and spread the message of social inclusion and leadership through friendship and I would like to take this opportunity to welcome our newest school Fairvale High to Best Buddies Australia. We look forward to sharing many more stories from our buddies with you all in coming months.
Mark Trevaskis - Executive Director
Buddy Pair Profile - Meet Jurgen & Owen
Jurgen "is the kindest friend I have ever had" says peer buddy Owen of the buddy he has met through Best Buddies Australia. Both students attend Sydney Secondary College - Leichhardt Campus and were introduced to each other in December 2008. Since their first meeting their friendship has flourished with the boys meeting up regularly, playing games, going to see films and hanging out at the shopping mall together, amongst other things! Well done Jurgen and Owen!For more on this inspiring buddy pair , please click here.
On Friday 26th June Kellyville High School Best Buddies Chapter had the afternoon off school and took their group 10-pin bowling at AMF Bowling, Castle Hill. Chapter President Sarah reports: "We were split into teams and everyone put their names into the computer. We had a game of bowling, then sat down for lunch and were given a token each for games. Everyone had a great time and we are all looking forward to our next outing!"
A great way to round off Term 2 Kellyville. 10-pin bowling seems to be a popular choice with groups this term, with three other schools also scheduling a trip to their local bowling alley!
The group of Peer Buddies from Kellyville is shown here at their training day late last year as at the time of publication photos from the day were not yet available.
For a more detailed rundown of the day please click here
Comments
Post has no comments.