Be a fan
Be a fan of victory: Support the State Indoor Championships
Are you a fan of courage? Are you a fan of skill? See it all in one place. Volunteer at the State Indoor Championships November 20-22 in Joplin! The event features competition in bowling, volleyball and flag football. From scorekeepers to awards presenters, volunteers are a crucial part of our events. Most shifts last four hours, and each volunteer will receive a complimentary T-shirt and great memories. Training will be provided onsite, so the only requirement is the desire to have a good time!
If you'd like to volunteer at this time, you can sign up online. For more information, contact Ashley Dawson at 800.846.2682.
Click here for more information on the State Indoor Championships.
We also invite you to show support by sharing in the victory of achievement: Support our athletes with a financial contribution which provides the medals they wear with pride.
In the words of some fans:
Betsey Rice, a volunteer
I teach at Ozark High School and I posted the newspaper article from the Springfield News-Leader on my classroom door. I spent a few minutes in each of my classes to talk about the article and the opportunity for students to volunteer at the Special Olympics. I made copies of the volunteer sign-up information and made it available to my students. More than twenty of my English students enrolled on-line to volunteer. I had teens who were not even my students come to me seeking information as they wanted to volunteer to help out. I was impressed. :)
My 17 year old daughter and I volunteered to work in the Victory Village on Thursday night. This was the night of the dance. Since this was the first time either of us had volunteered at the Special Olympics, we were not sure how popular the dance would be. WOW! Everybody was dancing! I had been visiting with an athlete and his coach (his grandfather) when a beautiful athlete wearing a formal full length dress walked up to me to ask if she could cut in and invite this young man to dance. She helped to push him in his wheelchair to the "dance floor" and they looked like they were having a great time. My daughter must have danced with more than 20 athletes (most of whom invited her to dance). I even learned, with a little help from athlete John, to dance the Cha-Cha Slide.
What a fabulous night! Thank you for a life changing experience!
Frank LaMantia, a coach
My story begins when I met Jody Cook through my family and discussed with her how interesting and very special the sport bocce is to me. Bocce has been in my family for generations and that is where my journey began.
When I was asked by Jody if I would be interested in coaching bocce, I thought to myself, “what an opportunity to show others what I know about the bocce sport.” You see, my dad was a pro bocce player back in Sicily many years ago and I have been around Bocce ever since as a player and a spectator. So because of my experience I decided to give it a chance coaching for Special Olympics.
When I got the team that I was going to coach, I thought to myself “what did I get into?” However, when I finished my first lesson I could not believe how much attention they gave me and how much they had grasped. I had all of these athletes come to thank me for my services for teaching them the right way and hugged me. It was very emotional and happy at the same time.
You see, I treated them as I would any athlete and they respected that. The parents kept coming to me and thanking me for all that I did for their sons or daughters. They developed self confidence as well as self esteem. I had an athlete that was bound to a wheelchair and oxygen that wanted to play so badly she removed her oxygen and stood up from the wheel chair. I was so proud that she actually threw the bocce ball just like the others; her name is Cindy Garrett, “good job Cindy”.
Some of the athletes participated not only in local competitions but State also and won Gold Medals. In addition, I trained two athletes for the World Games in Beijing, China in October 2007, where they won two Gold Medals. Harry Besleme was on top of the world when he returned from China with his two Gold Medals, and I was very proud of him and all of the athletes that participated. They gave me cookies and candy and Grace even gave me a sign language book to study so that I can communicate with her better. I’m really proud of all of them and I’m looking forward to the New Year.
For more information about Special Olympics Missouri: