Best Buddies Expands to Walsh Middle School

will host a kickoff event for Best Buddies Massachusetts today from 11 a.m. to noon, as part of a Middle School expansion of the Best Buddies program.

Walsh Middle School Principal Teresa Carney said she was excited about the program coming to her school.

Best Buddies Massachusetts will now add middle school programs in  Framingham, Boston, Chelsea, Lawrence, Medford and Peabody, all supported via a $38,000 grant from the Yahoo! Employee Foundation.

Today's event will give students with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities, who are paired in one-to-one friendships, the opportunity to socialize, play games and participate in arts and crafts before attending the together.

It will be a great chance to see the strong bonds formed between the students and how they all benefit from participating in Best Buddies, said a press release.

The mission of Best Buddies is to establish a global volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment and leadership development for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Yahoo! has provided its support to further expand the Eastern Massachusetts Middle School friendship program.

At each Best Buddies chapter, students with and without disabilities are matched in one-to-one friendships based on similar interests.  The goal of this program is to provide opportunities for the increased social inclusion of students with disabilities, and an understanding of the capabilities of all students by their typically developing peers.

There are more than 100 middle school, high school and college chapters of Best Buddies in Massachusetts, including a chapter at

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