Dear Friends,
Thank you for celebrating with us tonight we have a lot to celebrate.
2022 has been a special year for Best Buddies, and I’m so proud of our team. This spring, we hosted our first in person Friendship Walk since 2019 and were blown away by how many people showed up to celebrate inclusion. Over the summer, we moved into a beautiful, new office space in Brentwood thanks to a great partnership with Lockton Companies, which was spearheaded by our Board Chair, Maggie Spalding. We also returned to Bridgestone Arena for our first Friendship Ball since the pandemic and have engaged more corporate partners than ever before.
Most importantly, our programs are excelling. This fall, we opened several new school chapters across the state and now have a presence in more than 20 counties. We have more than 3,000 participants and 1,100 buddy pairs in our school based programs. We also have more than 50 active participants through our Best Buddies Jobs program and continue to host quarterly ambassador trainings to help people find and use their voice to self advocate.
Tonight, we look forward to celebrating this progress while laying the foundation to serve even more Tennesseans in 2023. In addition to sharing about our programs, we’ll name our 2022 Champion of the Year! We hope you enjoy the evening and continue to support our efforts to support people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
With gratitude,
