Local Special Olympics gear up for competitions in the new year
Little by little, the world changes.
For Special Olympics Virginia, sport is the way we work that change, but the real power lies within the Special Olympics experience and all the people it touches.
– Special Olympics Virginia
Since its 1975 founding, Special Olympics Virginia continues to change the world and touch many lives by providing year-round sports training and athletic competitions for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. The year-round athletic training and competitions, which take place in a variety of Olympic-type sports, gives participants continuous opportunities to develop and hone their physical fitness and athletic abilities.
While well-known for its sports and athletic competitions, the Special Olympics Virginia aims even higher than physical training. Its programs and competitions endeavor to equip its participants with tools and positive experiences, which can benefit them outside of sports and athletics.
“Our program, however, is about more than just sports,” the organization states on its website, which proclaims, “We envision a world in which people with intellectual disabilities lead healthy, vibrant lives grounded in ongoing sports and physical activity, sound nutrition and deeply held conviction to improve, compete, achieve and demonstrate their personal best to themselves and their community.”
These important objectives are reinforced by Special Olympics Virginia’s mission statement, which states its goal to provide participants with opportunities to “demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in the sharing of gifts, skills and friendships with their families, other Special Olympics athletes and the community.”
The organization and its programs are gifts for those with intellectual disabilities and their families and fortuitous for the cities, which belong to the various branches of Special Olympics Virginia. The city of Williamsburg, along with cities James City, Poquoson, and York, comprise Area 22 of Virginia’s Special Olympics. Area 22 represents the western part of the state’s Peninsula Region.
Currently, athletic participants of this local branch are gearing up for several upcoming events, including the Polar Plunge® Festival, Feb. 7-8 between 31st – 34th Streets in Virginia Beach.
Williamsburg’s local Special Olympics Virginia chapter also offers year-round sports and athletic training. The sports vary according to the various seasons. With cooling temperatures, bowling is offered in the winter. As temperatures warm up, Area 22’s spring sports amp up to include bowling, swimming and softball. In the fall, Area 22 offers sports training in bowling and roller skating.
For more information on the sports programs offered by Area 22, please click here. You can also check their Facebook page here.
Origins of Special Olympics: One woman’s mission for big change and justice
Since Eunice Kennedy Shriver pioneered and officially founded the “Olympic games” for youth with intellectual disabilities in 1968, Special Olympics spread rapidly throughout the world and is the now world’s largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual and physical disabilities. The organization continues to flourish globally and remains a vital, effective and joyous, program, event and historic tradition for adults and children with disabilities around the world. More than 3 million athletes partake in Special Olympics across our fifty states and 181 countries around the world.
After witnessing society’s continuous unjust and unfair treatment of those with intellectual disabilities, Shriver, a firm believer in justice, began to act on her groundbreaking idea to address the injustice and neglect those with intellectual disabilities suffered. Having grown up with her sister, Rosemary Kennedy, who had an intellectual disability, Shriver knew firsthand that those with intellectual disabilities still had plenty of gifts and talents to offer the world and embarked on her lifelong mission to fight for the rights and acceptance of those with disabilities.
Growing up, Shriver and her sister Rosemary swam, sailed, skied and played football together, which inspired her belief in sports for the intellectually disabled and planted the seeds of creating an organization to shine a spotlight on the talents, gifts and abilities of individuals with intellectual disabilities.
In her pioneering efforts to create the Special Olympics, Shriver experimented and gathered evidence and worked with several doctors, who also conducted research and studies on the impact of physical activity on those diagnosed with intellectual disabilities. The resulting evidence compellingly demonstrated what Shriver had known all along: the immense therapeutic values and array of positive benefits gained by intellectually disabled individuals when participating in sporting activities.
The studies proved that engaging in sports and athletic activity is a powerful force for those with disabilities because it shifts the focus of participants’ disabilities to their abilities. In addition, it provides participants a chance to connect and get involved with others instead of living a life of isolation or societal shame due to their disability.
The regular physical activity provided by the Special Olympics benefits participants’ overall health as well: it helps lower the rate of cardiovascular disease and obesity, among other health benefits. In addition, participants gain many emotional and psychological benefits, including self-confidence, social competence, building greater athletic skills and higher self-esteem. Numerous studies also show a link between exercise and a decrease in anxiety levels amongst people with intellectual disabilities.
Your chance to continue a legacy: Volunteer at the Special Olympics
If you are inspired by Shriver’s heroic fight for the intellectually disabled, Special Olympics Virginia, Area 22, has plenty of volunteer opportunities for community members to get involved in this important, historic tradition and help others. Area 22 holds monthly meetings at Quarterpath Parks and Recreation every 1st Monday of the month. These meetings are open to the public so if you are seeking to get involved and perform community service, here is your opportunity.
You can contact the following leaders should you have more questions about its programs or volunteering:
Area 22 Coordinator
Patricia Burnett | [email protected] | 757.645.3855
Volunteer Coordinator
Brittany Cochrane | [email protected]
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