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Best Buddies Friends Choir Spreads Awareness In Miami Community Through Song

Check out our concert this Friday to see all we have been working on

Feb 24, 2016

Best Buddies Friends Choir Spreads Awareness In Miami Community Through Song

When I first started the Best Buddies Friends Choir as a freshman in the fall of 2013, I had absolutely no idea of the impact it would have on my life.

The Best Buddies Friends Choir is an entirely inclusive choir for adults with and without intellectual and/or developmental disabilities. Similarly to Best Buddies International, it aims to create friendships, but through the power of music. What started out as five members has quickly transformed into a group of more than twenty.

The Best Buddies Friends Choir has sung for thousands of people throughout Butler County, Ohio. A few of our favorite performances include a TEDx Talk, singing the National Anthem at a Dayton Dragons game, and performing with all of Miami University’s a cappella groups at our first annual A Cappella Awareness Concert last year.

We don’t sing complicated music with eight-part harmonies, rhythms, or polyphony, but I can say without a doubt that this is the most passionate choir I’ve ever known.

The Best Buddies Friends Choir has a special focus on advocating for individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities. Our biggest event of the year, the A Cappella Awareness Concert, coincides with national Spread the Word to End the Word Day, a day dedicated to ending the use of the r-word (retarded) and other offensive language.

The "R-word" is offensive, derogatory, and hurts individuals with and without disabilities. It is no longer recognized as a medical term, and is no longer used in many legal documents.

The annual event brings together the Miami community to help promote a message of inclusion and acceptance. I invite you to join the Best Buddies Friends Choir, guest star Marlana VanHoose, and five other Miami a cappella groups for the second A Cappella Awareness Concert in Wilks Theater this Friday, February 26th. Tickets are free and doors open at 6:30 PM, and the concert starts at 7 PM.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.

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