Barrington Middle School won the Best Buddies International Overall Outstanding Chapter Award this year — the award recognizes the top Best Buddies program in the country.

Barrington Middle School celebrated the award with a special presentation and party earlier this month. Barrington Middle School Principal Dr. Andy Anderson attended the event. He said he was very proud of the BMS program.

“I feel it really showcases the inclusivity and kindness that is in Barrington,” he said. “It really provides a great outlet for kids. It’s really been phenomenal.”

Best Buddies International was founded in 1989 by Anthony Shriver and is dedicated to creating opportunities for one-on-one friendships, integrated employment, leadership development and inclusive living for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. 

At Barrington Middle School, the Best Buddies program focuses on creating an environment of inclusion. Cami DiMarco, who recently retired from Barrington Public Schools, played a key role in building the Best Buddies program in Barrington. 

DiMarco attended the award celebration at BMS and said the local middle school separated itself from the other programs nationally. (BMS also won the Rhode Island state award.)

“We had a goal last year to get parents involved and we did that,” DiMarco said. “The parents came up with activities for the kids to do, in the evening outside the school day.

“One of the things they did was a paint night, which was really successful. And they also combined with the high school and Best Buddies likes to see that you’re going out in the community, connecting with other chapters. That was part of it.”

DiMarco said the national award was also based in large part on the effort made at Barrington Middle School to create one-on-one matches for students.

“We put a huge emphasis on it,” she said. “We had 10 matches last year. We had a magical match party. We had a magician here. We played a game. That was a huge factor. We really put a lot of thought into it.”

Those matches yielded relationships that continued throughout the year and were on display during the celebration held at the middle school. 

DiMarco said the impact has been far-reaching. 

“BMS Buddies was the first inclusion program here at the middle school. Then Unified basketball came. Then Unified theater came. Now we’re doing Unity walks for the whole school. We kind of market it under Best Buddies, but it’s really everything,” she said. 

Award presentation

Victoria Swillum, the program manager for Best Buddies Rhode Island, attended the celebration at BMS earlier this month. She brought along two plaques — one for the national award, and another for the state award. 

“We nominated Barrington Middle School as the Rhode Island state middle school of the year. And then, from there, once they’re selected by us, their application goes to the national level. Then they compete with all of the middle schools that applied from all 50 states,” she said. 

Swillum said she was very excited to be able to share the presentation with the Barrington Middle School chapter. 

“It’s kind of different because I wasn’t their program manager last year. It was actually someone else, but I’m taking them over this year so it’s really exciting for me starting off my introduction as their program manager on such a happy note,” she said. “And I live in Rhode Island. It’s a really cool thing to have this (award) come to our state.”

Principal Anderson was equally excited to celebrate the award. He has long been a supporter of the inclusion programs. 

“For a while we had our BMS Buddies program, which is a version of the (Best Buddies) program,” he said, adding that three years Barrington moved from BMS Buddies to Best Buddies International. 

“Our first year we won rookie of the year. Our second year we won the state award. And the third year we won the national award. Which is awesome.”

Anderson said the real success of the program is the lives it touches and the impact on the school culture. 

“Middle school is a difficult time. Students are really figuring out who they are in this world and where they fit in this world and to have a program like this where everyone has a place and has a spot and everyone’s recognized for their abilities and not their disabilities it really is everything,” he said. “Having this program you see the friendships forming outside this event. In the hallways, you see the high-fives. In the classrooms, they’re inviting students into their groups to work.

“The students, they’re very mindful … they’re leading with inclusivity.”