Our 2024 Champion of the Year Gala was a huge success! More than 200 people joined us at the beautiful Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn to celebrate friendship and help build a more inclusive Michigan. Together our community raised more than $150,000 to help grow our mission and impact lives around the Great Lakes State.

This year’s top champion was Alexis Fisher, who raised more than $26,000 for Best Buddies in Michigan. Alexis, a Best Buddies job participant, had tremendous support from her family and friends. Alexis is also an active member of the Oakland County Citizen chapter and has made many new friends throughout her first year with Best Buddies. She currently works for one of our national retail employer partners and has enjoyed learning new skills at her job. She loved attending Best Buddies Leadership conference, and in her free time she enjoys listening to music, drawing, and playing Tennis. Alexis was nominated and supported by our very own employment consultant, Natalie D’Angelo.

Best Buddies in Michigan is incredibly grateful for all 11 of our Champions for their effort to grow the mission of Best Buddies in our state: Liza Wilson, Conor Alt, Mark Einhaus, Marvin Figaro, Brandon Middleton, Karan Wilson, Patrick Schoening, Jose Montero, and Mark and Jaxon Peterson. A special thank you to Alyssa Patrias who finished her third consecutive champion candidacy! Thank you to our sponsors, Sephora, Magna, Hail Impact!, Paslin, Nova Steel, Venture Steel, Sun Communities, and Wright and Filippis. With all the support, Best Buddies in Michigan will be able to offer more one-to-one friendships, job opportunities, and leadership development throughout Michigan. Our goals for 2025 include making 10 placements in our jobs program, and growing to at least 17 Friendship chapters, with a focus on increasing our K-12 school chapters. We can’t wait to see what the new year will bring and can’t thank our community enough for making 2024 an incredible success!