Best Buddies and Dessert Club collaborated to decorate cookies with special needs students in rooms 1151, 1153 and 1154 on Feb. 7.

The night prior, Dessert Club chose to make sugar cookies because they are “the easiest to decorate,” according to senior and Dessert Club member Guilia Erwing. Overall, Best Buddies and Dessert Club worked with around 40 special needs students and had nearly 30 club members attend the event.

Senior Sophia Din, co-president of Best Buddies, has been a part of this Valentine’s Day tradition for three years. According to Din, sometimes students are hesitant to interact with students who have intellectual and developmental disabilities because of inexperience.

“I think that regarding students with IDD, a lot of people are a bit more hesitant to get into [working with IDD students] because they don’t know how to interact with them, or they have and the experience hasn’t been as comfortable,” Din said. “So I think these types of events where we can get a lot of people and do a thing that everybody enjoys, which is as simple as cookie decorating, really allows people to step out of their comfort zone while allowing people to have a good time.”

Junior John Ho, the classroom manager for Best Buddies, divided students among classrooms and helped ensure the event ran smoothly.

“I think it’s just a great way to bring people together to socialize [and] to help us understand more about the people who we often don’t interact with, people with intellectual learning disabilities,” Ho said. “I’m just really happy that Best Buddies is growing and still thriving.”

Best Buddies’ next meeting will be on Feb. 21 and its Remind code is @bhsbbuds and Dessert Club’s Remind code is @bhsdessert.