Working to make Springfield more inclusive, Best Buddies held their Friendship Walk at Lincoln Land Community College. The event serves as a way to help people with intellectual and developmental disabilities build friendships and find jobs.

There are simple things we need to live full lives. One of them is friendship. Not just the friendships that last passing the halls at your company, but the kind of friendships where people show up for each other, regardless of what you are going through.

Rachael Fischer is a skier, a storyteller, and a state director with a mission. The Indiana native now leads Best Buddies in Colorado, part of a global nonprofit born from the Kennedy-Shriver legacy, that’s redefining inclusion for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).