ALECIA H. FINLINSO
This summer over 1,400 athletes will gather in Provo for BYUSA’s largely sponsored Special Olympics. Students are needed to fill key leadership positions from now until the end of May 1997.
Special Olympics provides an opportunity for students to develop good management and planning skills, said Adam Smith, assistant director of communications. “The students basically run the whole program,” he said.
Dedicated, self-starting volunteers will need to spend six to eight hours a week working on the project.
“I think once you get into Special Olympics and realize what it is and the reasons behind it, it is really a highlight for volunteers and athletes,” said Steve Bingham, director of the Summer Games.
“I don’t think anyone could ever walk away without feeling differently,” Smith said.
Eunice Kennedy Shriver, sister of President Kennedy, started Special Olympics as a day camp for people with mental retardation. Shriver’s goal was to “provide sports opportunities for persons who may have never dribbled a basketball, swum the length of a pool or sprinted around a track,” a Special Olympics video said.
Shriver organized the first International Special Olympics games in 1968 with 1,000 athletes competing. Today, over a million athletes compete from all 50 states, three U.S. territories and more than 140 countries.
Special Olympics would not be possible without generous donations and enthusiastic volunteers.
Last year nearly 90 percent of the management and committee teams for Utah had never been involved with Special Olympics before. “We have never had a committee come in with that degree of inexperience and pull it off so flawlessly,” said Mike Green, program director for Utah Special Olympics.
“We would like people to come forth who have expertise and would like to share that expertise with others,” Green said.
“I think volunteers gain a better knowledge of the disabled community,” said Sports Director Carrie Eagar. “I learned about differences and different disabilities and how our differences make us the same.”
In the Special Olympics video, it said, “The greatest reward for most volunteers is seeing the spirit of Special Olympics reflected on the faces of the athletes.
“Skill, courage, sharing, joy — this is the spirit of Special Olympics — the human spirit in its purest form. This spirit flows from values that transcend all boundaries of geography, nationality, political philosophy, gender, age, race and religion.
“Many volunteers would argue that the athletes give them more than they give the athletes. Special Olympics will inspire you. In the words of Special Olympics founder, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, ‘They give us a most precious prize — faith in the unlimited possibilities of the human spirit.'”
Those interested in volunteering for a management position may contact Summer Thurston Evans at 378-7885 or Steve Bingham at 374-1102.
Photo courtesy of Carrie Eagar
READY, SET, GO! Special Olympics participants get ready to compete in a motorized wheelchair race, organized by a committee of volunteers, in the 1996 Summer Games. Organization of the 1997 BYUSA-sponsored Games is under way, and students are needed to help organize the event.
