Friendship Walk and Festival of Friendship 2010

Best Buddies Nevada hosted its first annual Friendship Walk and Festival of Friendship on Saturday, March 27 at The District at Green Valley Ranch. In addition to the 1-Mile Fun Walk, our High School Best Buddies Chapters hosted a face-painting booth. We also held a raffle for lots of cool prizes and played a few rounds of musical chairs.

The UNLV Best Buddies Chapter and the UNLV Pre-Med Society (AED among others) did a great job runing our merchandise table and selling raffle tickets. Don't be surprised if you see a lot more people wearing Best Buddies gear around
Las Vegas!

Best Buddies Nevada, Special Olympics Nevada, and the Down Syndrome Organization of Southern Nevada teamed up on a “Spread the Word to End the Word” booth and collected lots of signatures for the Spread the Word campaign. Check out the photo below of our R-Word fighting ninjas!

There were also plenty of awesome performances to keep everyone entertained from our Best Buddies stage! Rachel Smith from Fox 5 served as our host throughout the event. The cheerleaders from Faiss Middle School got everyone ready and then led us on our Fun Walk. We were also treated to performances by Carlos Sierra and Michelle Desrochers, including a crowd-pleasing rendition of “New York, New York.” Buddy Ambassador Natasha Chuidian gave an inspiring speech encouraging everyone to get involved with Best Buddies.

After the walk, awards were given out to several of Best Buddies Nevada's biggest supporters, including Marie Mundy, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Harrah's, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Opportunity Village, and Fox 5. The award for High School Chapter of the Year was presented to Durango High School.

The Best Buddies Friendship Walk was created in honor of Rosemary Kennedy, aunt of Best Buddies founder and Chairman Anthony Kennedy Shriver. Rosemary Kennedy had an intellectual disability and lived her life with dignity and courage. The strength Rosemary displayed throughout her life inspired Anthony to start Best Buddies International in 1989. The walk symbolizes her legacy and our participants' commitment to the Best Buddies mission of friendship. This will hopefully be the first of many Friendship Walks in Nevada!

Thanks again to everyone who made it out to the event and to all of you for your continued support of Best Buddies Nevada!

Check out some more photos from the event: