Best Buddies benefits from university volunteers

By Erin McPhee
BA III

Spirit of Friendship Award winner Karrie Rayne (BA IV) poses with Best Buddies executive director Carol Martin and Buddy Rick Lemon.

St. Thomas students are meeting a commitment to enhancing their living and working environment through the simple gesture of volunteering.

Best Buddies Canada is a national charitable organization dedicated to enhancing communities through one-to-one friendships between students and people with intellectual disabilities. This year, more than two dozen St. Thomas students are offering their time and personalities to Best Buddies to assist someone with an intellectual disability.

Karrie Rayne is one such volunteer. Each year, the Best Buddies organization recognizes a pair who “encompass the true meaning of friendship.” The 2001 Spirit of Friendship Award was awarded to Karrie and her Buddy Rick Lemon. Karrie (who is a co-campus coordinator for Best Buddies) and Rick went to Toronto in September 2001 to attend the Best Buddies annual gala.

“It was quite an experience. It was our second time being there,” Karrie says, “as Rick and I went to Toronto for the Leadership Conference in the summer. [While in town for the gala] we saw a lot of things like the CN Tower, we attended the Toronto Film Festival and we were on City TV, where we did an interview. We met the Founder of Best Buddies, Anthony Kennedy Shriver, who honoured us with our award.”

This is Karrie’s third year in the Best Buddies programme. “I came to St. Thomas wanting to take social work. I heard about Best Buddies and got involved because it seemed like a great programme,” says Karrie, a fourth year social work student.

“Our programme is completely a friendship programme; there is no care-taking involved, ” says Shelley Rolland (BA 2001).

Shelley is a programme coordinator (eastern region) for the Best Buddies main office in Toronto. “St. Thomas has one of the oldest and strongest Best Buddies chapters,” she says.

Shelley was the campus coordinator for St. Thomas last year while completing a double major in political science and human rights. The recent alumna oversees campus and host site coordinators in Ottawa, Quebec and the Atlantic Provinces. She deals directly with the chapters, works to recruit new schools to join the programme and organizes events.

Student campus coordinators attend an annual Leadership and Training Conference. They find volunteers for the programme and work with host site coordinators who match students with a Buddy, based on similar personalities and interests. Volunteers must submit an application, references and undergo a police record check. Buddies talk on the phone once a week. One-on-one activities like meeting for coffee, going for a walk, watching a hockey game, etc., occur twice a month. All the pairs at each chapter meet four times a year for group activities.

As one of two campus coordinators (the other is Kim Collins) Karrie is very concerned with the importance of finding correct Buddy matches. “We spend a lot of time matching the pairs because we really want it to work out and it mostly does,” she says.

The St. Thomas chapter of Best Buddies meets once a month as an executive, including the campus coordinators, an activity coordinator, a secretary and a Buddy advocate for a “rap session.” Student Buddies are encouraged to attend to help with planning and to ensure there are no problems.

“We’ve done a lot this year, “ says Karrie, “We had a Halloween party and a Christmas Party, which was the best turnout Best Buddies has ever had.” Karrie lists some past group activities like a movie day in the Ted Daigle Auditorium and barbeques, and says the executive is planning a sleigh ride for later this winter.

The two Fredericton host sites are the NB Association for Community Living and OPAL-3. Laurie Muise, a Recreation, Leisure and Volunteer Coordinator for the NB Association for Community Living is also a host site coordinator for Best Buddies.

“This year has been really good. It’s all based on the student volunteers each year,” says Laurie. “This year we’re lucky to have 25 students from St. Thomas who have volunteered their time.”

Laurie says it is not only the Buddies with intellectual disabilities who benefit from the programme, but the students as well.

Jeannine Bourque, a fourth year social work student, echoes Laurie’s belief. She joined Best Buddies after hearing about it from other students and has been a volunteer for two years. “I may start off in child protection,” she says. “but I would enjoy, as well, working with people with mental disabilities.”