Bellaire clubs bring pumpkins, cookies, and compassion to Halloween

Students from Bellaire clubs Best Buddies and Red Cross spent the Saturday afternoon before Halloween with pumpkins, cookies, and a lot of fun. 

On Saturday Oct. 28th, these two clubs collaborated to host a pumpkin painting event at Karl Young Park. Best Buddies president Katelyn Ta said her favorite experience with Best Buddies “is always the pumpkin painting day.” This was her third time attending the event. 

Freshman Diego Herrejón Treviño works on his pumpkin with other members of Best Buddies and Red Cross. 

“I liked this one the most, because this is our first time we collaborated with a different club,” Ta said. “We collaborated with Red Cross. And I feel like both groups focus on promoting diversity. And I think it's really cool how we integrated that.”

Freshman Amaris Escalona poses with her pumpkin during the event. 

Best Buddies is an international organization dedicated to ending the isolation of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Ta spoke about the importance of the Best Buddies chapter at Bellaire, which hosts events throughout the year to help provide students with disabilities with community and friendship. 

“I feel like no one talks about people or students with disabilities,” Ta said. “[Those students] often don't have opportunities to interact with students without disabilities. And I think it's really important to build that relationship.”

Bellaire students from Best Buddies and Red Cross stand after the event with their pumpkins. 

Sophia Dinh, an officer for Best Buddies, emphasized what the events mean to the students from the special education classrooms. 

“They deserve to have these opportunities to meet new people and have fun events,” Dinh said. 

Dinh also spoke about becoming a part of Best Buddies, despite being an introvert.

“I think that some people might be nervous or a little apprehensive about dealing with stuff like this, but in the end, it's not as it's not as complicated as it may seem,” Dinh said.

Siblings Gabriela and Diego Herrejón Treviño show off their pumpkins, decorated to look like characters from “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”

Red Cross member Kashika Adhikari enjoyed the event and interacting with the students from Best Buddies.

“Overall, I really liked the experience,” Adhikari said. “I was really pleased to see that it was productive and people also had a good time.”

Junior Leslie Viser decorates her pumpkin at the pumpkin painting event. 

Ta also believed the event went well, highlighting the large turnout this year and all the collaboration she saw with the pumpkins. 

“I saw both buddies and also students without disabilities working on one of the big orange pumpkins together and they would rotate the pumpkins so that everyone could have a turn painting,” Ta said. 

Sophomore Lillian Snell adds Marvel-themed designs to a pumpkin at the event. 

When Ta first joined Best Buddies, she immediately noticed the compassion coming from all the members.

“I just thought it was really inspiring how these students would take the extra effort and extend that compassion towards people with disabilities because that's not something you do to gain something out of it,” Ta said. “You just hope to gain a new relationship [and] friendship.”

Ta believes being a part of Best Buddies doesn’t just help the students that have disabilities, but that club members grow and learn from their participation. 

“It's an opportunity to learn how to empathize with others,” Ta said.