Did you notice the colorful new picture decorating the wall of one of the staircases here at Towson? With a rainbow of handprints and an eye-popping painting, the Best Buddies mural makes both an ornamental and communal impact on Towson High School.

Best Buddies is an international nonprofit organization that encourages friendships between people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and other students. At the high school level, the group aims to create a sense of inclusion for teenagers with IDD by breaking social barriers that often separate disabled teens from their peers.

By donating one dollar, students were able to participate in creating a work of art while advocating for a tolerant and open atmosphere. The mural serves as a reminder to everyone not to focus on the differences that isolate us, but to celebrate the bonds that connects us as neighbors, peers, and friends.

“We received around $400 in donations, and there are over 300 handprints on the wall,” said senior Ariel Barbosa, president of the THS chapter of Best Buddies. The goal of the mural, she explained, was to “celebrate the annual day of Spread the Word to End the Word, with hopes of eradicating the use of ‘retard’ and ‘retarded’ within our school and within society as a whole.”

With dozens of Towson students literally and symbolically lending a hand in support of the program, the mural is truly a visual representation of the accepting community that Best Buddies has fostered throughout the school.