Best Buddies Louisiana
Best Buddies Louisiana High school kids with intellectual disabilities suffered as much as anyone in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina struck the city. As their schools closed and they were forced to find other places to live, the friendships and networks they built up over time fell apart.
That’s why Operation Kids is raising money for Best Buddies Loui8siana. Best Buddies® enhances the lives of youth with intellectual disabilities by providing opportunities for one-to-one friendships and mentoring along integrated employment and independent living. Best Buddies has high school and college chapters throughout Louisiana, but its program in New Orleans was severely disrupted by Hurricane Katrina. Best Buddies will use funding from Operation Kids to recruit and train volunteer buddies in the New Orleans area, hoping to establish 10 new chapters, each chapter having at least 20 ‘matches’ of buddies and peer buddies at the middle school and high school levels. It also aims to expand its growing e-Buddies® program.
The Best Buddies project is part of our “Operation Kids: Rebuilding Dreams in New Orleans” campaign. Working with New Orleans Saints QB Drew Brees and his Brees Dream Foundation, Operation Kids has committed to raising $1.9 million to rebuild and restore children’s programs and facilities in New Orleans. These include parks, playground facilities, academic programs, child care facilities, after-school programs, mentoring programs and athletic facilities.
It’s now been a little more than a year since the announcement, and thanks to your help, we have raised $1.6 million and completed several projects. So we’re not done yet! We really need your help with this project: We want to raise funds for these programs by October 1, so they can be available throughout the school year.
We want to raise $20,000 on-line on behalf of Best Buddies Louisiana. Every dollar raised is needed, and every dollar used is well spent. That’s our promise. Won’t you help? For more information on Operation Kids’ New Orleans rebuilding projects, visit www.operationkids.org/accountability.html
