and befriend as many as he could. At times, his persistence paid off. But too many times, he felt the sting of the cold shoulder, to the point that his bright demeanor began to dim. Moving Forward has changed all of that, he says. “The way I look at my fellow students has changed,” he says. “I started off high school wanting to make as many friends as possible, but by sophomore year, I realized that not ev- erybody was going to be my friend. When Moving Forward started up, it rekindled that fire to meet new students. The dream I had in freshman year of making friends with every- one I could find is becoming more and more possible.” Allison sees herself connecting with so many new peers too. What stands out to her at Moving Forward events is when she sees up- perclassmen — juniors and seniors — going out of their way to introduce themselves to and befriend freshmen. “It’s really nice for Dennis and I to go and talk to the younger ones because that makes them feel more seen, and I talk to them when I see them at school and in the hallways,” Alli-
September’s Movie Night at Gilbert High School kicked off at 5 p.m. with food and board games in the commons area. Basketball, volleyball, and bags took place in the gymna- sium, and other students gravitated toward the wrestling room to play dodgeball or other games. Eventually, the event shifted to the au- ditorium for a screening of Top Gun: Mave- rick . The key is that while groups of friends may have attended together, they splintered to in- teract with other groups during the event. There were no cliques. There were no groups keeping to themselves. Rather, there was a concerted effort to leave the protective bubble and venture out with the goal of meeting and bonding with new people. The more the merrier, Moving Forward says. “In general, we try to break up tables to try to bring everybody together as a group,” Den- nis says. “It’s so cool to see friend groups that never would have talked to each other sit down and play UNO. Or to see (group) A and (group) B talk together for the first time ever ... we’ve seen really beautiful friendships come with that.”
Taryn Hicks and Allison Fugere at Moving Forward’s September school assembly.
son says. “We know the teachers are there for us, but it’s so nice to see students themselves say we care about you. Students we see in the hallways every day genuinely care about us and that makes such a huge difference.”
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