At the conclusion of the second night of the fall retreat, each of the PFO teens was given a white envelope that contained the long-awaited information about their buddy. As soon as Jen Band said “One… Two… Three… Open!” teens ripped open their envelopes with yelps of excitement. These PFO teens were about to embark on a journey full of growth and compassion through the buddy experience.
The Buddy program is a large part of the PFO experience, during which teens are able to be directly involved with those who benefit from that year’s partner non-profit. Each PFO teen is given a buddy who is a member of the partner organization. Every month, the teens are given an opportunity to get together with their buddies to have fun, get to know each other, and strengthen their relationships. These relationships are many teens’ favorite part of PFO. Julia Hunt, a returning member of PFO, says that “the buddy events have been really fun” and that they have been “easy to just hang out with the buddies.” The children learn many valuable social skills that they will keep for the rest of their lives, and the PFO teens learn that every child just wants to be loved and have friends.
So far this year, PFO has held two buddy events; the first was the Meet Your Buddy Event (held at Veteran’s Park on October 11) and the second was the Music Event. The teens only had that piece of paper with a name on it, so they were truly excited to finally be able to meet their buddy in person. For the rest of the afternoon, the teens and their buddies played and laughed in the park while getting to know each other. Some new friends played soccer, football, and basketball. Others drew pictures on the pavement with chalk. The event helped kick-start the lifelong friendships that are sure to result from the program.
“My day was made when my buddy Cole had enough confidence to yell out ‘Everybody dance now!’ To know that Emily and I can help him interact in a socially positive way is the incredible feeling only can give” stated Ben Elling, regarding the Music buddy event that took place at Tom Sykes Recreational Center on November 8. This was an opportunity for the buddies to express their happiness and individuality through music and to become more comfortable with the PFO teens. The buddies were organized based on ages and gathered around with representatives from Music Together. They danced, sang, clapped, and played musical instruments for two hours. As each PFO teen learns during their time in the program, each buddy event is another step in creating the positive relationships between the buddies and the teens that Playing for Others works so hard to inspire.
