Special education student and junior Owen Hill kept thinking about what his mom told him this school year.
“You’re almost done with high school, and you need to get out there. If you want to meet new people, this is not the way to do it.”
So instead of taking a nap or playing Mario Kart and Wii Sports, Hill decided to go to a Pack of Pals event, organized by the chairs of the SHARE project.
Pack of Pals is dedicated to organizing events for special education students and has become a way for students, like Hill, to bond with other students and establish a community.
Hill told himself, This is good for you. This is something that you desperately need. It's scary, but you can power through it.
Dressed as Doctor Doom from the Marvel Universe, Hill attended his first event, a Halloween party.
“I usually prefer being inside, which now that I come to terms [with], I kind of don't really want to do that,” Hill said. “I feel like getting out there in the world is more fun.”
The six Pack of Pals SHARE chairs immediately greeted him, making sure to acknowledge him by name.
“We were always checking in with [the special education students] throughout the entire time and we just make them feel that we want them to be here, and we want to be here with them,” Pack of Pals chair junior Vada Walsh said. “We just get very excited to see them, and they get very excited to see us.”
Senior Margot Hawes became a SHARE chair after her three older siblings were chairs for Pack of Pals in previous years.
“My main goal is always to make the kids and the special needs students feel like a part of [SM] East and a part of something normal and included and all just welcome,” Hawes said. “I don't want them to ever feel like they're different, or an outcast.”
This school year, the chairs have organized several events, including a Chiefs watch party, a Halloween party and a bowling event. During the monthly events are smaller moments where Walsh got to braid a special education student’s hair in the bowling alley so they could have matching hairstyles, or when Hawes would cheer on junior Spencer Thornhill as he pulled out a dance move.
“At the events, we just really push how everybody's always welcome and that you don't have to come,” Pack of Pals chair senior Allie Hartis said. “But when they come, we just try to do as much as we can, to really have a fun environment that's not based around it being Pack of Pals. It's based around it being a fun out-of-school hangout with friends.”
Students have been able to find other communities through Pack of Pals. Special education student and freshman Fitu Hurt found an interest in bowling after attending the bowling event, and now he’s on the Unified Bowling team.
“[Pack of Pals] means that I'm part of [a] family,” Hurt said. “And that's what I always remember. When they all love me, and I love them back.”
Find the Pack of Pals chairs' names in the word search below.
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