Sartell High School club promotes unity

by Madison Evans

The Unified Club, a unique activities club at Sartell High School, provides experiences to help ensure students with disabilities feel included and accepted by their peers.

Now in its fourth year, the Unified Club was started by Sartell High School health/physical education teacher and strength coach Jacob Sailor and special education teacher Emily Stoebe. Both are Sartell residents. The purpose of the club is to foster inclusivity and bridge the gap between students with disabilities and general education students by planning and attending after-school social activities.

“We thought it would be a great idea to give students with disabilities an opportunity to be with their peers outside of school,” Stoebe said. “A lot of our students need supervision from a parent or personal-care assistant, so we thought it would be a good idea to have them with mentors, the high school kids, to go out and do some fun things in the community, whether it would be go get ice cream or go to a movie.”

Sartell High School student Fallyn Budde, 17, is the club president. In her role, she leads the organization of the club and makes sure everyone feels included and takes part in the club’s planned events.

Budde said the club has allowed her to develop friendships with students she may not have gotten to meet without the activities. She said she always sees smiling faces at the events so she feels confident everyone is having fun.

So far this school year, the club participated in a Unified football game, sensory homecoming dance and the Tackle Cancer Football half-time show.

The Unified Football game was a collaboration among the club, the Sartell High School football team and homecoming festivities. During the game held on Sept. 27, club members ran plays, partnered one-on-one with football players and drew out plays for an upcoming game.

Then club members attended the sensory-friendly homecoming dance together on Sept. 28 at Sartell High School. Thirty minutes prior to the official homecoming dance start time, the doors opened for students with sensory sensitivity. Unified Club members danced in a calm and inviting atmosphere to music at a low volume with lights turned on.

On Oct. 11, at the Tackle Cancer Sartell High School Football game, Unified Club members walked out with the football team and stood on the field side-by-side with the players during the starting lineup announcements and the National Anthem. Since they had already met, Sailor said there were plenty of hellos and high-fives among players and club members. During the half-time show, Sartell High School seniors and Unified Club members Alexis Adelman and Fallyn Budde, both of Sartell, teamed up to compete in an intermission game. The duo won the coveted prize of the Samsung 60-inch television.

Club members will continue planning events for the rest of the school year, including a “Friendsgiving,” gingerbread-making contest and a pizza party.

The club is an extension of the Unified Physical Education class, taught by Sailor, which is available to upper-class students at Sartell High School. During the class, students with and without disabilities participate in adaptive sports activities. The concept was developed by the Special Olympics as a way to promote inclusiveness and to ensure everyone feels included and welcomed in their school.

According to Sailor, the goal of the club and class are acceptance.

“We are not looking at disabilities as disabilities,” Sailor said, “but it’s a person’s ability and they have the potential to live a great life, and we need to view them the same as everybody.”

In the future, Sailor and Stoebe hope the Unified Club concept will eventually be adopted at the middle school and elementary levels. They also hope the students spread the word of inclusion and educate others about the importance of standing up for people who may not know how to stand up for themselves.