“Kelly, drop that beat!” one person yelled, as Usher’s “Yeah!” started blasting through the speakers.
All alone, the person enthusiastically walked forward with a big, toothy smile and proceeded to make the empty stage his own. Busting into a soulful interpretive dance that contained a whole lot of his larger-than-life personality, the smile didn’t leave his face once.
That person, alum Andy Cox, was just one of a handful of students with disabilities that came together in the Student Union auditorium Friday night for the Best Buddies talent show.
Best Buddies is a worldwide nonprofit organization that focuses on forming relationships, providing encouragement, and creating opportunities for people with intellectual or developmental disabilities.
UNF’s Best Buddies chapter targets the formation of one-to-one relationships between students with and without disabilities. Best Buddies operates hand-in-hand with UNF’s interactive On Campus Transition (OCT) program, which is instrumental in providing the college experience for students with disabilities.
Every fall and spring semester, UNF’s Best Buddies, which consists of 42 student pairs, puts on a highly anticipated talent show that allows the buddies to express themselves in a welcoming environment.
For Ali Perricone, a junior who is studying American Sign Language, the talent show is a personal favorite Best Buddies event.
“[I like] singing and dancing in front of my friends, not anyone else. Cause then I’m not as embarrassed, not as frightened,” Perricone told me, just 15 minutes before she gracefully acted out her rendition of the Whip/Nae Nae.
The atmosphere at the talent show was lighthearted and joyful. There was no sign of competition in the air, just pure companionship.
The talent show was initiated by the delivery of a speech by student Randy Kersh, a sophomore who is interested in studying abroad in Japan. He spoke about how Best Buddies has positively impacted his life before singing “Tomorrow” from the famous musical Annie.
“We want to celebrate our abilities, not our disabilities,” Kelly Butler said, a junior nursing major and president of Best Buddies at UNF. Butler was also the night’s MC, and was very active in keeping the crowd pumped up.
Butler’s buddy, junior Garrett “G-Money” Rice, was another one of the students who sang and danced at the talent show. He delivered a heartfelt performance of Wiz Khalifa’s “See You Again”.
Some of the other students’ acts included a choreographed dance to “All About That Bass”; a karaoke-style version of Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space”; and a passionate examination of horse racing history, among other performances.
But the two most high-energy acts were the group dances to songs like “YMCA” and “The Cupid Shuffle.” All of the buddies joined together onstage to bust a move and show love to each other and when the night was winding down, a group of buddies came together to sing and dance to “Happy” by Pharrell Williams.
It was a very fitting last song – there was not one judgemental gaze, not one hurt feeling, not one face without a smile on it the entire night. Everyone was happy and everyone was appreciated. And for the talented Best Buddies of UNF, this is all they could’ve asked for.
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