The Wartburg College Best Buddies program is an organization that helps students create meaningful relationships with community members with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Group members will meet with their members at least two times a month, including a chapter meeting and a large event.
Members of the program are asked to spend 12 months with their assigned Buddy, checking in with them on a weekly basis via phone, email or letter. Group members will also meet with their buddy twice a month for one-on-one activities which are still experimental, these may include crafting, going for a walk or dinner.
Best Buddies has an overall goal to create a global movement and lifelong one-on-one opportunities for those with IDD. The Best Buddies organization is the largest national program dedicated to ending the social, physical and economic isolation for individuals with disabilities. Their program is meant to empower, inform and provide skills for those with IDD and their families.
“As President, my goal is to connect Wartburg students with our buddies and making sure our buddies feel involved if they come on campus, just say hi to them in the hallways.”
Madeline Downes
Senior President Madeline Downes says, “The Best Buddies program at Wartburg is where we work with intellectual and physical disabilities, and the community members come in from the Larrabee center, from the middle school, from North Star, all over and we throw events for them.”
Third year Alexa Brockmueller posing with her buddy at the Best Buddies Holiday event on Nov. 18.
Downes says she keeps in close contact with her buddy as they engage in weekly phone calls and small outings such as getting ice cream or visiting the movie theater. Downes says that the main objective of the Best Buddies program is to socialize with the buddies, making sure they’re not isolating themselves, because that is very common for people with IDDs.
Third year Vice President Jack Crane says that he volunteered at his local elementary school where he would first work with individuals with IDDs. Crane would find out about the Best Buddies program during his second academic year at Wartburg.
Crane and Downes have helped re-build the program back up from the bottom. Best Buddies at Wartburg has been around for over a decade, but after Covid the program began to slowly fall out of favor. Only a year ago, their first event would consist of two buddies and no students outside of their own executive team. Now, their events are attended by at least fifteen buddies and twenty students.
“I think we’ve come a long way, and we’re not done yet. We’re going to keep going,” says Crane.
To become involved or keep up with Wartburg’s Best Buddies program and their upcoming events, follow them on Instagram, check the daily Juice or join their emailing list by reaching out to President Madeline Downes at Madeline.Downes@Wartburg.edu
