Thank you! You’re making a difference.
and Emma
Message From Our State Director
Dear Friends,
All of us at Best Buddies in Minnesota extend our deepest appreciation to our wonderful participants, families, volunteers, donors, and corporate partners for such a successful 2024! Your dedication to our mission helps our programs grow, creating more inclusive schools and communities for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities throughout our state.
Happy New Year to you and yours and here’s to continued growth in 2025!
In Friendship, Katey DeMarais State Director
Kai, Katey
Here’s what we’ve accomplished, because of your support in 2024
116 Cities | 24 Counties
2,200 Total Participants
22,000 Impacted We opened 13 new school chapters in 2024!
McKinley Elementary School
Meet Kaleb and Duncan
“
Kaleb and Duncan have been matched in our adult friendship program, called Best Buddies Citizens, since August 2023!
One-to-One
Friendships
Duncan is very happy, loves meeting new people and making them smile. He is a joy to be around and always has something fun in mind for us to do, whether that's cooking dinner together or going to see a new movie."
-Kaleb
Kaleb is funny, cool, awesome and gets nice haircuts. I love when we go to
baseball
games together. He's my best friend."
-Duncan “
Leadership Development Program
28 Participants Trained
16 State Ambassadors
Best Buddies State Ambassadors
Meet Grace
The ambassador program has been the best thing that ever happened to me and impacted my life in many positive ways."
-Grace Bohn, State Ambassador
Friendship
Best Buddies Ball
An unforgettable evening with 141 Best Buddies middle school, high school and college participants from all over the state gathered at Eastview High School for music, dancing, and friendship!
(STW) is an ongoing movement to end the hurtful and demeaning use of the word “retard(ed).” Chapters all throughout Minnesota held STW awareness events at their respective schools in March. Our Best Buddies participants raised the consciousness of their classmates about the dehumanizing effects of using the R-Word and encouraged people to pledge to use more inclusive language.
$110,924
Raised Exceeding our goal!
Over 750 participants, corporate partners, and community members walked for inclusion!
The largest group we’ve ever brought to BBLC!
In July, 20 leaders from all over Minnesota, both with and without IDD, attended our 33rd annual Best Buddies Leadership Conference! They participated in personalized trainings that developed the skills needed to organize and lead a Best Buddies school chapter and volunteer initiatives in the community.
Our biggest event to date in both attendees and funds raised!
Raised $357,500
450 guests came together for our 7th annual Champion of the Year gala in celebration of the collective efforts of our 9 Champions who raised funds and awareness to support our mission of inclusion!
Heroes are ordinary people who make themselves extraordinary.” - Gerard Way
Congratulations to 2024 Grand Champion, Maureen Cahill, and her Mission Partner,Amelie Wall!
