PORTLAND (WGME) – South Portland High School Graduate Jackson Bowie-Haskell started hanging out with Best Buddies Maine two years ago and says he has to look deep into his memory to find some of his favorite moments at Buddies events, because there are too many to keep track of.

Best Buddies’ Maine chapter started connecting people with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities in 2019. During Autism Awareness Month, leaders of the organization are spreading the message of inclusion.

“We have so much more in common than we realize. There’s so much out there about kind of looking at someone from the outside and making those judgments without really knowing people, and Best Buddies is really great because we drop all of that and notions that you have about someone. We do these things that are common interests that we all have. We all like to dance, we like to do karaoke, we like to grab a beer sometimes, we all want to play sports we want to have friends,” Senior Program manager Shay Wilcox tells CBS13.

As for Bowie-Haskell, focusing on similarities versus differences has been a big help. “Lacking social skills is for anybody, not just people with disabilities,” he says. See the full article and video interview on WGME by clicking the button below.