SOMO News

Wow, it is already Wednesday. Happy 4th of July from Seattle. The week has flown by it seems. This morning Allison and I started out our day at Tennis. She filmed and I took photos. Simon and Lucas were playing doubles. They had a very match against New Jersey. Their first set literally came down to the very last point to decide and they won! We hopped over to Bocce quick to catch their Unified Doubles competition. Out of our 4 pairs, 3 won so that was pretty good for the morning. Loretta Claiborne was there so I snagged a quick selfie with her. She came and spoke at our Youth Activation Summit about 5 years ago so that was really neat and cool to get to talk with her again. We went back to Tennis to watch Jeremy and Kris play Unified doubles. They had a very hard fight against Louisiana and didn’t come out with the win unfortunately. We went and worked in the media center for a few minutes. Then went back to Bocce. Matt and Paul had a crazy game. They are such good players. It came down to the very last round and they pulled out the win!

I ended up running into softball at the fan zone so I hung out with them for a few. A man from Coca-Cola gave me these awesome sports pins that fit together like a puzzle and you can put them on this stand to create a picture. I walked back to the dorm and got some lunch. Bowling was eating so I sat with them. After lunch, I talked to Derrick quick, stopped by Starbucks quick and then went back to fan zone for Powerlifting awards. Starbucks is 30% off this week with our badge so I couldn’t pass that up at least once. Charlie ended up getting 2 silver and 2 bronze. He definitely showed off for the crowd. He bit the corner of each medal on the award stand like a true Olympian. Awards are one of my favorite parts of Special Olympics because it doesn’t matter if the athlete got 5th or 1st, they always smile and get really excited. Bowling awards were next at the ballpark so I hurried over there. Our Unified boys got gold and the girls got silver! I hung out with the bowling team while we waiting for the BBQ to start. An athlete from Texas came up to Kayla, Erica, and I and wanted to take a picture but he had to take 5 with each of us on each side so we had to take so many photos.

Finally it was time to go in the stadium. There was quite a line. We got a wristband and it had a drink, dessert, and food ticket on it that they tore off as we got our food so they would know we’ve already eaten. Pretty interesting way of doing things. We all got blinky red,white, and blue pins for our lanyards and some of us got patriotic sunglasses from the fan zone. They had big blow up things and other games for the athletes to play. They could dance in the middle. There were also different street performers walking around. An illusionist came up and changed 5 $1 bills to 5 $100. It was so cool but crazy. I came back with Brandon so we could start working on Public Relations things. I had laundry done for Allison and I so that we would have some clean clothes for the rest of the week lol. We had our coaches meeting. The fireworks were going off during our coaches meeting. I was finally able to catch a couple. I was going to be a little sad if the 4th passed and I didn’t get to see any because we always shoot off a lot back home. Last time I was home, I told my nephews (5 and 8) that I wouldn’t be home for the 4th of July. We always celebrate together. They asked me why and I told them I was going to Seattle. They’re like where’s that? They were really confused. I really missed celebrating with them today. Now it is off to bed for another exciting day tomorrow!