(ABC 6 News) — Fifth graders from Folwell Elementary School met disabled adults from Bear Creek Services on Thursday night, as a part of a tradition that’s been going on for years.

Every year, Bear Creek Services partners with Folwell Elementary School for a pizza dinner.

The kids sat down at tables in the gym and got to know their new friends through games and questions they had prepared earlier in the day.

The goal of the dinner is to introduce kids to people with disabilities, some for the first time.

“It’s very important to I guess just talk to them,” Joshua Jewell, from Bear Creek Services, said.

The tradition for Folwell Elementary fifth-graders is something each class looks forward to every year.

The teachers and Bear Creek Services say the hope is that the kids will realize they are not so different from people with disabilities, and walk away with a new friend.

“Sometimes people have been through tougher things than you think by just looking at them, and you can’t judge someone just on how they look,” fifth-grader Annika Tevaarwerk-Stamm said.

The teachers said they hope this tradition can spread to all elementary schools in Rochester, so every child can meet a person with disabilities.