As co-leaders of a Severna Park High leadership group, identical twins Maddie and Jordan Dressel spent part of senior year laying the groundwork for a Best Buddies Maryland chapter at the school. Best Buddies is a nonprofit volunteer organization that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
The twins took an important step on March 13 when they volunteered their Leadership Institute committee to work at Best Buddies Maryland's 20th Anniversary Dance in Olney - an evening that was fun for the students and very enlightening.
Though caught up in end-of-year exams and preparations for their June 1 graduation, Maddie and Jordan took a few minutes to speak about the inspiration for and process involved in forming a chapter.
"Jordan and I had participated in leadership projects since our sophomore year but we'd never worked with anyone with intellectual or developmental disabilities and we wanted to," said Maddie.
"So, for our senior leadership project, we explored different options and settled on Best Buddies. We loved their message of breaking friendship barriers between people with and without disabilities and promoting integrated employment."
Through their research, the girls found that many Anne Arundel County schools already had BBMD chapters including Broadneck, Old Mill and South River High Schools.
"We were a little surprised that Severna Park High was not among them. After all, our school does have a Functional Life Skills program for students with disabilities. We both felt it an ideal place to launch a chapter and began working toward that goal," Maddie said.
To explore what is required to become a chapter and get a feel for the organization, the twins volunteered their group to help with Best Buddies Maryland's 20th Anniversary Dance - an event attended by members of 97 middle school, high school and college chapters throughout the state.
"We soon learned that our help was greatly needed as we'd be replacing regular volunteers from the Naval Academy who happened to be on spring break," said Jordan. "As a result, Maddie and I and our leadership project committee members Hannah Thorpe, Laura Hedenstad, Michelle Sherman, Jordi Alton, Kelly Summers and Carson Gregg stepped up and handled most of the operational details."
The dance proved a great introduction to the program for the six younger students who will inherit the Best Buddies project from the twins as they advance to the Leadership III class.
"We reached our goal as two of the six will work with Best Buddies next year as co-leaders of their own senior project to finalize arrangements for becoming an official chapter," Jordan said. "Once established, the group will be able to promote one-on- one friendships with FLS students, hold chapter meetings and organize activities appealing to people with and without disabilities. Though we've never really considered that we are leaving a legacy behind, that is exactly what we're doing and we feel that we're leaving our project in good hands."
With graduation just a few days hence, Maddie and Jordan are looking forward to the future. As with most identical twins, they are real life best buddies, and feel they scored a major coup when both were accepted by the University of Central Florida in Orlando.
"Jordan was accepted first while my acceptance was deferred. However, I was given an opportunity to attend UCF this summer and continue on in the fall," said Maddie.
Jordan, who won't arrive until the regular start date for the fall semester, found humor in the situation.
"I won't feel like 'the new girl' as I'll have Maddie to show me around," she said.
The twins are gregarious, love to socialize, and share many friends and interests. However, they're planning to pursue different courses of study.
Jordan, who loves science, will major in biology. Because biology is a vast field of study with many disciplines, she's hoping many career choices will be open to her. At the moment, she's leaning toward working with animals or plants but she'd consider doing something in the environmental area.
Maddie, who already has marketing experience through an internship at Chesapeake Arts Center, will pursue a marketing degree. She feels the marketing skills she's picked up through her CAC internship and as an SPHS DECA club member have already helped her build her confidence.
Throughout summer, Jordan will continue working at Libations, a restaurant located in Millersville where both girls have held jobs. Since the twins are mirror images of each other, it's hardly surprising that their customers frequently get them mixed up.
"Our customers will miss Maddie... but not as much as I will because we are, in fact, each other's best buddies," Jordan said.
Maddie added, "When Jordan joins me at college, we'll not only miss our parents and other buddies but we'll miss our dog Pancake, a Yorkie we really love."
Email your Severna Park news to Sharon Lee Tegler at wingsorb@aol.com. Follow her on Twitter @SharonLeeSays.