Our Milestones: 1989-2007

2007

Best Buddies launches international, five-year partnership with German luxury car manufacturer Audi. Audi becomes Official Vehicle of Best Buddies.

1999 - 2006

e-Buddies® is launched as a cutting-edge online friendship program.

Maria Shriver writes a landmark book about friendships with people with intellectual disabilities titled, What's Wrong With Timmy? Proceeds benefit Best Buddies.

Best Buddies launches most successful fundraising event in its history, the nationally televised inaugural Volvo Hearst Castle Challenge, chaired by California First Lady Maria Shriver, a 100-mile bike ride along the Pacific Coast Highway.

Volvo signs deal through 2007 as Title Sponsor of the Volvo Hyannis Port Challenge and Volvo Hearst Castle Challenge and becomes Official Vehicle of Best Buddies.

Best Buddies has programs in all 50 of the United States and on six continents, annually impacting more than 300,000 individuals.

1994 - 1998

Best Buddies launches Best Buddies Jobs, a supported employment program, targeting high-paying, white-collar jobs for people with intellectual disabilities in Florida, California, and Massachusetts.

Best Buddies establishes Best Buddies High Schools, with the goal of pairing special education students in one-to-one friendships with high school volunteers.

Best Buddies Middle Schools' pilot program is launched, reaching out to an even younger age group with the hope that inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities will have a lasting effect on societal norms for the next generation.

1989 - 1993  

The Images of Friendship series is developed, raising more than $2 million to date, including masterpieces by Keith Haring, Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Rauschenberg.

Best Buddies hosts the first unified Leadership Conference, training both college student leaders and people with intellectual disabilities, by providing intensive training in public speaking, management, public relations, team building, problem solving and leadership skills.

Best Buddies launches Best Buddies Citizens with the goal of pairing adults with intellectual disabilities with their non-disabled working peers.

Year One

Incorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Best Buddies® becomes America's first national, unified, social and recreational program for people with intellectual disabilities.