Best Buddies Wear Teal & Red

By Noelle Nelson

A typical Best Buddies meeting is filled with laughter, discussions about the best allergen friendly treats, and lots of new friends! With Best Buddies, no child with food allergies is alone.

I (Noelle Nelson) founded Best Buddies Wear Teal & Red. Best Buddies Wear Teal & Red is a free Zoom camp for kids with food allergies and their friends or siblings. In collaboration with Red Sneakers for Oakley, Best Buddies has had six meetings with kids from across the country! Kids ages 7-13 meet on Zoom for forty minutes a month to learn tools for safety, find support, and be empowered through fun games and activities. As a Red Sneakers for Oakley Ambassador, I invited two other teens with food allergies, Bella M. and Claire C. to help lead the sessions.

Each meeting includes new games that open a variety of discussions about living with food allergies. We’ve had conversations about carrying two EpiPens or Auvi-Q, reading “may contain” labels, and teaching our friends about food allergies. The kids on the call are encouraged to ask questions to the leaders or even to each other. They receive advice from one another and encouragement through seeing their peers endure the same adversities as them. Finally, they learn new things each meeting in the best possible way: having fun! For example, during the Halloween meeting, we enjoyed speed-reading candy ingredient labels. Not only did we practice deciphering long and complex labels, we also discussed all of our Halloween costumes that were planned. Fast forward to December, we wore holiday accessories and had a party to celebrate the upcoming season. All the attendees received an exciting giveaway and had lots of fun too.

The goal of Best Buddies Wear Teal & Red is to create a space where children receive support on their food allergy journey. Whether it is learning tips for advocating for themselves or simply knowing they are not alone, Best Buddies Wear Teal & Red helps children with food allergies find their confidence. Additionally, kids who don’t have food allergies can learn from the meetings too as we play games that encourage awareness about food allergies.

If you want your child to attend a Best Buddies Wear Teal & Red meeting, follow @teachteal on Instagram or @redsneakersforoakley so you can find out when the next sign-up will come out! Any child who attends Best Buddies Wear Teal & Red will receive a Red Sneakers for Oakley keychain and bracelet. We can’t wait to see you there!

Personal Perspective From a Mom of a Best Buddies Attendee: I just wanted to say this group has been a wonderful experience for my son, Mikey. He has several food allergies and it has made it very difficult for him to be understood by other kids. With this group he has certainly learned he is not alone! That other children are experiencing some of the same challenges he faces. The peer on peer support is great! The many different topics discussed have been so helpful! And the way it’s broken down into fun games makes it easy for him to interact even though he is shy. I most importantly would like to add you (Noelle) are doing a phenomenal job running this group and advocating for food allergies! You are a great leader and my son loves hearing the experiences you’ve faced and how you’ve handled them. You are a great role model for the kids.