Avery Cotton, Reporter
@averyccourant
With the arrival of the new year, acts of generosity and kindness are becoming present in a variety of forms. For some people, gift-giving might involve wheeling a shopping cart down the mistletoe-covered aisles of Walmart, frantically searching for gifts on Christmas Eve, and for others, it may involve donating to a local non-profit organization. For South School gym teacher Joshua MacDonald, however, gift-giving involves standing on the South School blacktop on a frigid Saturday morning.
Every Saturday at 9 am, Mr. MacDonald and a group of volunteers meet for a program called Sports Buddies. “Sports Buddies is a sports and social program for students with special needs from around Fairfield County,” Mr. MacDonald said. “The fall session takes place outside, and in the winter and spring, we go inside the Aux Gym at the high school.”
During the hour-long sessions, volunteers are paired with athletes with special needs, providing an opportunity for the athletes to hone their social and emotional skills and connect with their “buddies”, as the volunteers are known. In any given session, the athletes and their buddies might play multiple different sports, like basketball and soccer, and partake in related physical activities, like wiffle ball and parachute.
Basketball is the most popular activity that Sports Buddies hosts. Other activities include soccer, wiffle ball, kickball, baseball, and more.
Mr. MacDonald, along with school physical education teacher Howard Berg, co-founded the Sports Buddies program back in 2007. “There was a void in the district in that there weren’t many programs for students with special needs,” Mr. MacDonald said. “Sports Buddies fills that void for students with special needs to develop their skills and be social.”
After initially establishing the program, volunteer numbers were concerningly low. “Some weeks we would get a lot of volunteers, and some weeks we would only get three or four,” Mr. MacDonald said. “The inconsistency made us a little anxious.” However, after partnering with the Service League of Boys (SLOBs), a student-run service organization, the number of volunteers increased and became more consistent. With the help of volunteers from SLOBs, Sports Buddies’ influence now extends across multiple towns. “We have kids from Stamford, Weston, New Canaan, and Darien,” Mr. MacDonald said.
Regardless of whether or not one is a member of SLOBs or another organization, one can sign up for Sports Buddies. But bailing out after signing up is frowned upon. “It’s an issue we’ve had recently where people sign up and don’t go,” senior SLOBs member Cristian Triay said. “If you sign up, you should go.”
The advantages of not skipping benefit both the athletes and the volunteers. While the athletes form deep social bonds and friendships with their volunteer buddies, the volunteers create cherished memories and learn how to be role models. “It’s really special to see kids’ eyes light up when they first join Sports Buddies,” Cristian said. “It gives volunteers a way to step out of their own lives and become a positive influence to someone else.”
Sports Buddies has partnered with other New Canaan-based organizations as well. For instance, Sports Buddies and the New Canaan Chapter of the National Charity League (NCL), a non-profit organization for mothers and their daughters, have worked together in the past. “I think Sports Buddies is an amazing program because it makes you feel fulfilled,” Isabelle Dunlap, a senior at the high school and volunteer at the NCL, said. “I think it’s a great way to spread kindness and joy throughout the community.”
As Sports Buddies continues to make a profound impact on the community and becomes affiliated with more and more organizations, Mr. MacDonald is looking forward. “I would love to see Sports Buddies become more student-centered,” Mr. MacDonald said. “It would be great to see the students start running the program, so we can take a step back and give leadership roles to people who want it.”
