It doesn’t take a lot of time to brighten someone’s day. A simple telephone call or even a smile will do the trick.
At least that’s what the residents of Moore Living Center, 401 W. Jolly Road in Lansing, look forward to once they join the MSU Best Buddies organization. The club matches 27 MSU students with Moore Living Center residents, many who are between the ages of 18 to 74 and have disabilities, to be best buddies this year.
More than 500 colleges and high schools across the country are involved with the program.
All it takes is a phone call or letter once a week and an outing twice a month to the movies or lunch to make a buddy happy. A group outing is organized once a month.
“It makes their whole week,” said physiology senior Nate Brady, who’s been involved with the non-profit organization for four years. He joined in order to do something special with his time that would make a big impact on the community.
Brady said all too often students waste their free time and take it for granted. He said he’d rather be going out to lunch with someone who doesn’t have much contact with people outside the center.
Family community services junior and Best Buddies director Amee Patel said the satisfaction comes from making the residents smile.
That’s what happened Sunday from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the music room of Owen Hall at the Best Buddies Halloween Party, when the student members met their buddies for the first time.
Dressed as angels, cows and rock stars, everyone got a chance to get to know one another while eating pizza, listening to music and playing games.
“They will be on a high from this party for a whole month,” Brady said.
Best Buddies chose a group activity to start the year because some students and residents are a little nervous at the beginning.
“I didn’t know exactly what to expect. I didn’t know his family or history,” Brady said, about when he met his buddy, 22-year-old Dell Odie, four years ago. Brady remained Odie’s buddy throughout college because he wanted to build stability.
Now Odie talks to him about things he doesn’t share with his mom, like girls, Brady said. He said Odie likes to have someone there to listen.
Moore Living Center program manager Cheirie Watts said that’s most important.
“Some don’t have anyone come to visit or talk to them,” said Watts, who’s impressed with the student dedication so far this year. She said many students called prior to the Halloween party to talk to their buddies.
Watts assigned residents to a college buddy by looking over questionnaires that the participants filled out based on their personalities. She said this is the best year yet in terms of participation.
Animal science senior Joel Crespo is one of the newcomers.
“I’m experiencing a way to give back to the community,” Crespo said.
He said he enjoyed talking about football and getting to know his buddy Jason Kellog, 25, during the Halloween party.
But some Moore Living Center residents are still waiting to be matched up with a college buddy, like 27-year-old Darren Hudson.
“I can’t wait to meet my buddy. It’ll be fun,” said Hudson, who’s new to the program this year.
Even though he didn’t have a buddy at the party, Hudson said he had fun meeting everyone.
“I like them all,” he said about the other buddies.
It showed on the residents’ faces when they met the college students.
“It was a real good experience for them,” Crespo said.
This won’t be the group’s only activity this year.
Each Best Buddy chapter does a Book Blowout every year, where they collect books and magazines from students and faculty and donate them to women and children centers and libraries throughout the community. Their goal is around 200 books, Patel said.
They will collect until the Penn State football game using boxes in buildings around campus, Brady said. For the past three years, the entire Best Buddies group has eaten brunch together before the game to celebrate, he said.
They also donate canned goods to the food bank at St. Vincent de Paul Society of St. Gerard Church in Lansing, 4437 W. Willow Highway. Each college buddy had to bring a book or a canned good as admission to the Halloween party.
Patel doesn’t just want to work within the Lansing chapter of Best Buddies; she wants to unite all five chapters in the state.
She said each buddy in each chapter will get a square to decorate as part of a large friendship quilt that will be displayed somewhere on campus at the end of the year.
As part of the ceremony, Patel said she wants to get Anthony Shriver, who founded Best Buddies in 1989, to be the guest speaker. She said they are still working out the details.
Patel said that Best Buddies is a great volunteer organization for students because it’s not time consuming and it makes other people feel loved. They will be accepting more students at the beginning of next semester, but still need three more buddies.
For information on joining Best Buddies go to the Service Learning Center, 27 Student Services.
CHRISTINA STOLARZ
