Written by: Owen Weems, Staff Writer
ACCEPTANCE: Every Friday at lunch Bear Pals meets to break down barriers and build friendships between students with special needs and general education students.
In the 200’s Quad every Friday, the sound of music and people having a great time can be heard. That’s because every Friday the club Bear Pals organizes an event where students can come together to make new friends, talk to other classmates, and spend time with students with special needs. In a tradition known as “Fun Friday,” they host this event to make the end of the school week more fun. On special occasions they will even bring snacks, such as chips or even ice cream, to make these days feel like full fledged-parties. Many students, such as Gunnar Gifford (11), share the sentiment that the opportunity to hang out on Friday is a great way to “relax and talk to friends.” It is also a great way to “make new friends and meet new people,” according to one of the Bear Pals members, Carly Barnard (11). Although Bear Pals is a super engaging way to spend lunches and some enhancements, if you have the time, the most important thing about the club is teaching acceptance for people and giving the students with special needs a chance to feel more included in the school environment.
Bear Pals members posing for a picture during lunch on Fun Friday
Bear Pals has been around for a long time, but it has never before reached the level of popularity that it has in the past couple of years. Mrs. Murtaugh, the special needs teacher, noted that it is “[amazing to see] all these kids excited for the club.” Although they have faced some management challenges with the sudden increase in popularity of the clubs, this popularity is the first step of “helping [Mrs. Murtaugh’s] students feel more accepted at Poly.” It can sometimes be hard for them to “make friends and fit in,” especially with the general education students, but “Bear Pals is a great way to change that.” Mia, one of the Bear Pals, explains that through Bear Pals she was able to “make a lot of friends and meet new people.” This would have been much harder without the club to bring lots of new people and experiences to her. The students with special needs will sometimes “struggle to fit in” and sometimes are treated “differently by staff and students.” Bear Pals, especially in the past couple of years with the increase of participation by general education students, gives the students that Mrs. Murtaugh teaches a great opportunity to meet new people and feel like they belong. “Many people, due to lack of understanding, don’t give these students” a chance and this just creates a larger gap between us, but this doesn’t need to be the case. These students are no different from and enjoy many of the things that we do. They enjoy “watching football and baseball” along with sharing many of our favorite TV shows. Because we don’t have “a lot of experience with people that are different from us, we can be intimidated by them.” Bear Pals works to fight this by creating opportunities for everyone to interact with new people and share love and friendship. It is an incredibly fun way to learn more about new people and become a more accepting and open-minded person.
Many students feel as though it has given them a wonderful chance to learn more about their fellow students and have learned many lessons from being a member of the club. This includes the Bear Pals who stress that “the friends that they make at Bear Pals make them very happy.”It has helped people such as Carly Barnard“make new friends and find a group that makes them feel like they belong.” Bear Pals proves to be an incredibly beneficial club for all people involved because it gives students the chance to become a part of club life at Poly and learn valuable lessons that will translate into the rest of their lives. Mrs Murtaugh stresses the importance of joining a club such as Bear Pals because it can widen your “perspective and expand your knowledge of the world around you.” She herself, at the beginning of her teaching career, “didn’t know what to expect when interning” at her first job with students with special needs, but ended up loving the environment and helping the students feel more comfortable at school. Because of this, she ended up settling down with this job choice and has loved it ever since. More than anything, she wants students to join the club because she feels like it is a “grounding experience to spend time with them.” Realizing that not only there are different kinds of people in the world, but that all people deserve the same respect and care can really help a person become more content in their own lives. Just sitting down and talking with them can help you “take a step back from the stresses of your life and learn something new.” Giving them the opportunity to speak is the first step in making a bond that can last for many years to come.
“We build friendships that last,” explains Carly Barnard, as she tells me of all the new friends that she has made.” Going to Bear Pals and giving any of the students an opportunity to speak is the first step to spreading the message of love and acceptance that Bear Pals strives to create.
Bear Pals enjoy their lunches and each other’s company on Friday.
Bear Pals isn’t about making the students with special needs feel privileged – it is about treating them as equal, because – in the end, every person is worth of love, respect and belonging. With this in mind, the undisputed slogan of the club has become “Love Unconditionally,” which many agree is the perfect way to encapsulate the goals of the club into a phrase. Bear Pals is about accepting everyone because our differences are what make us unique, and no one should be shunned or made fun of for them.
Creating lasting memories at Bear Pals is a given and every Friday is a party. It provides you with a space to be yourself and learn to be a more accepting person. Bear Pals can help open one’s eyes to the barriers that, through lack of education and ignorance, have been put in place and helps tear down prejudice and replace it with love.