Good Buddies celebrate music and Special Olympians

“Ask and it shall be given you: seek and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” Matthew 7:7

It was almost as if a biblical miracle occurred when four intellectually disabled students at Regina’s LeBoldus High School made an unheard-of request.

They simply asked to join a band with their peers, friends they had studied music with since elementary school.

Little did they know that their humble request would lead to the creation of the Good Buddies Blues Band, one of Canada’s premiere ensembles that blends the power of music with the power of inclusion.

In fact, as the main showcase band, the Good Buddies brings their dynamic message to St. Albert on Feb. 28 as part of the opening ceremonies for the Special Olympics Canada Winter Games. The band is composed of 12 students with intellectual disabilities along with 20 associate buddies from the Dr. Martin LeBoldus High School Best Buddies chapter.

Next Monday the 32-member band is hosting a fundraising concert at North Pointe Church to help raise about $15,000 to cover the costs of transportation, accommodations, meals and activities while at the games.

The band took flight in 2005 under the moniker Best Buddies Blues Band. Since then, it has not only garnered rave reviews, but it has recorded a CD, performed at the 2010 Winter Paralympics in Vancouver and sung at Disneyland.

And much of the credit goes to Aaron Higgins, Robin Hamill, Robbie Keith and Roger Lareau, four teens who missed playing with their regular buddies.

The foursome was part of the Functionally Integrated Alternative Education Program for adolescents with intellectual disabilities at LeBoldus High. Although the FIAEP students were involved in the elementary concert band, high school was a different matter.

“In high school, the jump was too big to include them. But we couldn’t deny them,” says band director Chris Hamilton, the arts education consultant at the Regina Catholic School Board.

Hamilton scouted around for more students and invited the LeBoldus’ Best Buddies chapter of mainstream students to develop a band. Best Buddies pair up members with FIAEP students in one-on-one friendships in the belief that everyone gains through the shared camaraderie.

“It’s so much fun for them,” Hamilton says. “They get to be with their peers. With this, they are included in every part of what they do. They get to hang around with their friends and enjoy the gig. It’s pure equality.”

The initial Best Buddies Blues Band was founded with four FIAEP students and eight Best Buddies volunteers. It has nearly tripled in size and in 2011 the band changed its name to Good Buddies Blues Band.

“We just wanted to have more control over the band, the name and any money we raised.”

It’s been nearly seven years since the band got off its feet and in that time, members have taken ownership by composing grooves that speak for them – charts such as Ain’t Nothin’ Like the Blues, Tradin’ 8s, Celebrate and That’s Why We Play the Blues.

And they’ll be bringing a ton of instruments to the games – bass, electric guitar, drums, dobro, shakers, electric piano, electric organ, drums, xylophone and harmonica.

“Watching them is pure joy. It is entertainment at its finest. It will leave you jumping out of your chair.”