Audi 2009 Annual Report Download - page 73

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rom his desk, Anthony Kennedy Shriver can see his
very own “Wall of Fame.” Photographs, newspaper
clippings and election campaign posters featuring his
famous relatives make up a collage of grand politics, human
tragedies and modern myths. However, the souvenirs are not
there to impress visitors but to remind him “that I come from
a family in which public service forms an integral part of our
upbringing.” Unusually for a Kennedy, the 44-year-old is not
pursuing a career in politics. Since 1989 he has, instead, been
running “Best Buddies,” whose aim is to integrate people
with intellectual and developmental disabilities into society
through one-to-one friendship matches and integrated
employment
Like everything the Kennedys set their minds to, Best Bud-
dies also made it big, now has more than 200 employees in
46 countries and an annual turnover of 30 million US dollars.
Kennedy Shriver himself regularly attends football games
with his buddy, for whom he arranged a job in a hotel 15
years ago. “He earns his own money and uses it to buy the
tickets,” says Kennedy Shriver. “This independence is incredi-
bly important for him.” Naturally, people often want to know
why he did not become governor or at least a senator. His
answer is simple: “It does not take a political office to change
the world.” Even as a child, he tells us, he realized that people
with an intellectual or developmental disability are people
like you and me, with the same dreams and ambitions. “Each
time we took our disabled aunt along with us to church there
would be whispering and we would get nasty looks,” he
remembers. He founded Best Buddies to enable people like
his aunt “to live in the midst of our society.” It doesn’t matter
to him that his old college friends have long since got jobs in
prestigious law firms and corporate headquarters, earning
big money. “There is nothing more rewarding than the feeling
of having a positive influence on the life of a fellow human
being,” he says.
Kennedy Shriver is founder, Chairman and central figurehead
of Best Buddies. The organization’s growth plans are ambi-
tious. By the year 2020, he intends to triple the number of
members receiving support from 500,000 to 1.5 million and
operate in 120 countries. Yet his real objective is rather dif-
ferent: “Ideally, I would wish for a society in which there was
simply no need for an organization like Best Buddies. We are
working towards a society in which people with special needs
are able simply to lead ordinary lives. Once we have achieved
this goal, we will happily retire.”
ANTHONY KENNEDY SHRIVER
Working with the intellectually disabled instead of politics
“
F
I established Best Buddies to make it
possible for people with intellectual
and developmental disabilities to live
at the heart of our community.”
Anthony Kennedy Shriver, founder and chairman of Best Buddies