News release: NORTH BAY, MARCH 3, 2016 – Students at St. Joseph Scollard Hall Catholic Secondary School will be ‘Hooping It Up’ on Friday, March 4th, 2016 at 10:15-11:30am to help students with special needs and raise money and awareness for their Best Buddies club. ‘Hooping It Up’ with Best Buddies Canada is a basketball free-throw competition and awareness event. For a $2 entry fee, each participant attempts to sink as many free-throws as possible in one-minute. It’s an exciting event where students with special needs get the chance to feel like a basketball super-star as their fellow students cheer from the stands!
Three National Grand Prizes of $500 will be awarded to the top shooters across the country as well as individual prizes for participating schools. ‘Hooping It Up’ with Best Buddies Canada invites the entire student body to get moving and embrace their school spirit in support of inclusion for fellow students with special needs.
“After five years of ‘Hooping It Up’ students with special needs are being included in schools across the country now more than ever before,” says Steven Pinnock, executive director of Best Buddies Canada. “This year we are expecting 10,000 participants. Every school that runs Best Buddies is making a difference by showing student volunteers and students with special needs that they are more similar than different. ‘Hooping It Up’ gives students with special needs the opportunity to compete alongside their mainstream peers.”
Last year, 132 schools hosted ‘Hooping It Up’ nationwide involving over 8400 students across all ten provinces and raising approximately $25,000 for local schools. This year, Best Buddies expects 150 schools to get involved across the country.
Best Buddies Canada is a national charity that helps to foster friendships between individuals with special needs with student volunteers in over 400 universities, colleges, high schools, and elementary schools across the country. Through Best Buddies, students with special needs are given the opportunities to enjoy the same experiences many of us take for granted- such as going to the mall, watching a movie, or simply enjoying the company of a friend. In the North Bay region there are five Best Buddies chapters including: Nipissing University/Canadore College, Almaguin Highlands Secondary School, Chippewa Secondary School, St. Joseph Scollard Hall Catholic Secondary School, and Widdifield Secondary School.
March is Best Buddies Month.
