Best Buddies hosted its annual Trunk or Treat at the end of October, bringing students together to celebrate Halloween while promoting inclusion for students with disabilities.
“I had an officer who wanted to try a trunk or treat type event because we have previously done a smaller carnival type activity with our buddies,” Best Buddies sponsor Melanie Newberry said. “She came in and said she’ll organize it so we gave it a try but the event has changed a lot since that first year.”
Participating clubs were required to sign up and coordinate their theme, games and candy ahead of time.
“Mrs. Newberry sends out an invite to all of the clubs that we have on campus and they fill out a spreadsheet on the club that’s attending, what they’re bringing and what their theme may be,” Best Buddies president Avani Srivastava said. “Then we also send out a list of things they can have, like different Halloween games.”
Best Buddies began planning the event in August to avoid possible complications. However, this year an unforeseen issue with the weather forced the club’s leaders to find a quick solution.
“The only thing [the rain] affected was that we decorated my table rather than the car trunk,” senior Vori Cha said. “We had a little bit less space since we were so cramped up next to each other.”
Because of the weather, the event was moved indoors, which brought new challenges, especially with the addition of new community groups.
“We have reached out to our Spanish speaking community,” Newberry said. “We have a Spanish liaison on our campus and she’s helped us advertise. We’ve been able to reach out to autistic parent groups and so I think each year we are able to include a different group of people and push it to other areas.”
This year, Newberry and the Best Buddies officers connected with families and parent groups through Facebook and email to make the event more inclusive while continuing to raise awareness for Best Buddies.
“It’s important to our buddies because they get to know that they have a community even outside of the Best Buddies club,” Srivastava said. “I always see them love those activities, seeing them engage and having that community where everybody feels included is what we’re all making an active effort to build.”
The Best Buddies club is built on the values of inclusivity and community, which are reflected in the Trunk or Treat event that brings together the Frisco community and school to support students with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
“Trunk or Treat is a mirror image of the Best Buddies values where we are a very inclusive environment,” Best Buddies vice president Elizabeth Shin said. “All of the pillars are really ingrained into Trunk or Treat with everyone coming together, having fun, and being an inclusive environment.”
