Palm Beach County, FL.- “Everyone deserves a friend.”

This summer, one local athlete focused just as much time on community service as he did preparing for the upcoming season. During the off-season, Dr. Joaquin Garcia’s star QB, Caleb Butler spent countless hours giving back to his community. Butler is the founder and President of the “Best Buddies Club”. This club serves as a way to connect and love kids that were born with special abilities.

Long before becoming one of South Florida’s premier passers, Caleb founded the Best Buddies Club back when he was in elementary school. The ability to give back to his community is something that Caleb takes pride in, eagerly stating:

“The Best Buddies Club grew up with me. It’s something that I pour my heart into. I started this club back in elementary school, brought it to middle school and now I’m bringing it to Garcia. The goal for the Best Buddies Club is to make sure that every kid, regardless of their situation feels loved and accepted.”

Like Caleb stated, this club meets twice a week, giving kids with special abilities the opportunity to fellowship together, try new things like sports and arts and crafts, while making new friends.

“I’ve been blessed with the ability to use my platform to make someone else’s day special.” Butler said. “When you put a little bit of your time every day into making someone else’s better its an amazing feeling. Unfortunately, a lot of special needs kids aren’t accepted by their peers, and aren’t used to people being genuinely nice to them. It’s good to see them find great people that care about them and want to hang out with them.”

The entire Dr. Garcia High School has rallied behind the Best Buddies Club. In celebration of this amazing group, the Bulldogs will hold a “Best Buddies” night for their home opener, where they’ll host Suncoast on August 30. Kickoff is slated for 6:30 P.M. EST