Best Buddies from across globe meet in Bloomington

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - (AP) — People form a small circle around Anthony Kennedy Shriver, hoping for the chance to take a photo with him.

Staff members tell Shriver he will be late to his meeting, and he needs to stop posing for photos.

"I can't," he says, as he puts his arm around a woman holding an Egyptian flag. "This is important."

Shriver was in Bloomington along with about 1,700 volunteers and staff from 18 countries to attend the Best Buddies International leadership conference on Indiana University's campus over the weekend, The Herald-Times reported. ( ).

Shriver is the founder and chairman of Best Buddies, a global nonprofit organization that works with volunteers to create one-on-one friendships, integrated employment and leadership development for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

He officially founded the organization in 1989, but actually started work on the organization as a student at Georgetown University.

"As a kid, it always bummed me out ... when people were left out," Shriver said. "I always found that people that were a different or on the border were more interesting. That's just how I feel."

He never had a concrete plan for how Best Buddies would develop or grow when he started the organization, but what he did envision was creating a feeling of acceptance for those with disabilities.

The concept itself is an old one, of people gathering together in pairs or working together as a team, Shriver said.

"Unfortunately, for a lot of people with disabilities, they haven't had a buddy," he said. "It's like you're a scuba diver wearing an air tank. They've been carrying that tank on their backs alone for so long, and it weighs them down. We want to help lighten their load so they can rise to the surface."

Madeline Fletchall and Zach Curtis, a Best Buddies pair from Fishers, Ind., have been part of Best Buddies for almost five years.

Curtis was encouraged by one of his teachers to join the program and told Fletchall, who had tutored him, about the organization, prompting her to join as well.

"It's impacted my life and it's given me a passion," Curtis said of being involved in Best Buddies.

The two were paired together, and recently spoke at Best Buddies events in the state of Indiana, which Fletchall said made their friendship stronger. "It's given me a best friend," Fletchall said. "You can find a best friend in someone you may not think will be a best friend."

Connor Regan, a Best Buddies volunteer and member of its youth leadership council from Orange County, Calif., didn't really know anything about Best Buddies when he joined five years ago as a freshman in high school.

"A lot of participants have some reason for joining," Regan said. "They have a family member or a friend with a disability. That wasn't the case for me."

Regan joined on the recommendation of a friend and was paired with a fellow freshman, Eric.

Regan said the two don't treat their friendship any differently than any other friendship, going to movies, basketball games or even just to grab a cup of coffee.

Disabilities don't affect how the pair interacts. Eric has a learning disability, Regan thinks, but said he really isn't sure.

"You don't get introduced like, 'This is Eric, he has a learning disability,'" Regan said. "Obviously, there are a few disabilities that are more obvious, like Down syndrome, but in most cases, you might not even know. People really don't seem to care. It doesn't matter what the disability is; a friend's a friend."