Amount Requested: $21,483.00

Best Buddies would use these funds for three chapters in Texas’s 9th District (E. Lee High School, Houston Baptist University and Alief Elsik High School), which will have 75 participants, train 12 student leaders, provide leadership training for three students with disabilities, and include 12 group outings and countless individual meetings.  This program will have a positive impact on the lives of 375 Texans annually.  Best Buddies is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the lives of people with intellectual disabilities by providing opportunities for one-to-one friendships.  Best Buddies works to achieve this goal by organizing – and rigorously overseeing – volunteer-run chapters at middle school, high school, and college campuses, which pair students with and without intellectual disabilities into one-to-one mentoring friendships.