City High’s award-winning Best Buddies chapter marked the beginning of the 2018-2019 school year yesterday with its ice cream social.

“It’s really just a nice kick off to the year,” associate officer Yaffisar Hassan ‘19 said. “I think it’s just to get the rollercoaster started, the rollercoaster of fun as I like to call it.”

The social started in the cafeteria at 6 p.m. Hundreds of students sat with their Chromebooks to register with the Best Buddies organization as officers and club president Beatrice Kearns ‘19 circulated to assist them.

“This year, we wanted to get more people involved in Best Buddies. We wanted to get people signed up, and we did,” Kearns said. “We had 143 people register, so we just wanted to spread our message to the whole school.”

Best Buddies is a global movement that aims to create a more inclusive society for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities through one-to-one friendships and leadership opportunities. At City High, it hosts monthly events in the commons and cafeteria.

This year, the club is looking to increase male involvement in the club.

“Male involvement in our club is really important, especially for our male students in special education. Because having that guy friend is really important and really changes their life,” Kearns said. “My brother Leo was paired with Sam Bloom last year and Sam changed his life in 10 months. There’s no way around that.”

As students enjoyed ice cream, officers began conducting interviews to help in the process of matching. The event came to a finale as students started dancing throughout the cafeteria.

“Best Buddies made me have a really good friendship last year,” Leo Kearns ‘21 said. “[My buddy] is very caring and nice.”