Nearly two hundred people gathered in the cafeteria on Saturday, March 29th for the Eastern Iowa Best Buddies prom.

“It was super fun,” Elena Foster ‘14 said, “We had lots of food and everyone wore fancy prom dresses so it was just like regular prom, but just for best buddies kids.”

Steven Eckert-Chamberlain ‘14 agreed to enjoying the prom as well. “It was fun. We danced and ate snacks.”

People from all over eastern Iowa attended Saturday’s prom, including students from the University of Iowa, Cedar Rapids Prairie, and West High School.

“My favorite thing was the dance, because I’ve never had fun like that in all my life. I’ve never had so much fun like that before,” Chantel Johnson ‘15 said about the prom.

Johnson expressed that she would like to go to the prom again next year and encouraged others to attend. “I think Best Buddies is a good program, and anyone one can go.”

Best Buddies is City High’s largest club, and is recognized as one of the best chapters in the state as well as the nation. Best Buddies matches pairs of people with students with intellectual and developmental disabilities and students without disabilities.

“It opened me up, because when I first got in the program, I was shy but after awhile I kinda started to open up, because this was my first time. In Chicago we don’t do stuff like this, but when I started to get into it [best buddies], it broke my shyness, and helped me come out of my shell. It [best buddies] did a lot of stuff for me, and it just helped me a lot, to get to know a lot of new people, and to get to know new people and stuff. So, I was very happy” Chantel Johnson ‘15 said.

To Elena Foster secretary of the City high chapter, Best Buddies has a deeper connection for her. “I want to become a special education teacher once I get out of college and grad school. I really like it [best buddies], because you get so much out of it. You go into in thinking you’re giving back so much, but it’s not like that. You get so much out of much out of just like making a ton of friends and seeing people grow and evolve of people.”