Global and Local Special Olympics

By Megan Daniels

The worldwide Special Olympics started in 1968 and came to schools in the year 2008. The global Special Olympics do a sports competition for the mentally challenged. Our school does the same thing but on a smaller scale. 

Some popular sports that helpers participate in are pickleball, soccer, and bocce ball. These are only a few of the many different sports that are included. Bocce ball can be compared to bowling, instead of pins, the target is a small white ball called a pallino that is the first ball thrown. The goal is to have your team’s bocce ball closer to the pallino than the other team. 

Many people remember Mrs. Smith in middle school, but do they remember anything about Peer Robotics? Helpers of the Special Olympics say that this is where they first heard about the Special Olympics from Mrs. Jackson. These types of students enjoy helping others and most plan to go into a career pertaining to helping those who are less fortunate. One example would be Nora Ubel who, when asked what she wanted to say about the Special Ed kids, stated: "You can do hard things.” 

Special Olympics helps you build skills to become a nurse, a teacher, or any type of job in health or childcare. A couple of helpers have already gotten jobs related to their passion, like in the organization Hand in Hand. These teens really love and enjoy improving the lives of the other teens. 

Izzy Heitz shows this by stating warmly that her favorite reason for being in the Special Olympics is “hanging out with the kids, because there are some amazing ones.” 

Another positive effect is the supportive energy and inclusion it brings. One of the interviewees stated, “Go and talk to the students, because if you do, it causes others to want to as well, then they talk about how so and so came and talked to them and it just makes their day.” Inclusion of everyone, no matter what cards they have been dealt.