Food, drinks, costumes, dancing, and festivities: the Best Buddies Halloween Party is the place to be this fall.

Best Buddies, a national organization which helps students with special needs find friends outside of their special education programs, has been associated with OPRF for over 14 years, and has been making a positive impact by improving the lives of students with disabilities ever since.

The Best Buddies Halloween Party is one of the largest events held at OPRF. It brings in droves of people and helps bridge the gap between students with intellectual disabilities and the rest of the student body.

Each Buddy, a student with special needs, is matched with a student volunteer. The two act as a team to overcome the social stigmas often imposed on special needs students by hanging out both inside and outside of school.

The Halloween Party will be on Oct. 26, from 6 p.m to 7:30 p.m in the South Cafeteria. Food and drinks will be the centerpiece, featuring pizza, halloween themed sweets, and snacks.

The party will also have a costume contest. Fawn Joyce, the head of the Special Education Department, said, “Best Buddies matches are encouraged to dress as a pair.” The party will feature dancing as well, hosted by a DJ.

The party will not cost anything to attend, but instead will have an optional donation basket. Proceeds will go to funding future Best Buddies events.

The staff who head Best Buddies encourage all students to attend, regardless of whether or not they are in the club. “Students from all schools are encouraged to attend,” Joyce said. Because after all, Best Buddies is about being inclusive, not exclusive.