SOMO News
2018 Team Missouri Newsletter: Sunday, July 1
Sunday, July 1
Hello Team Missouri family and friends,
It’s hard to put into words just how great today was for our delegates. We hope that you all were able to watch the Opening Ceremony on ABC today, but if you didn’t (or even if you did and you still want to see what it looked like from our perspective), we took plenty of photos and videos, which we’ve posted on our Facebook page. Be sure to “Like” the page to see all of our posts during this week. We even posted a 360-degree video that gives you a behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like to march into Opening Ceremony; you don’t want to miss it!
How cool was it that our very own Bea Webb (bowling sport manager) was invited to share her Special Olympics story on stage during Opening Ceremony? We couldn’t be more proud of what she has done and continues to do on a daily basis for our athletes.
A friendly reminder that if you want to download full-res photos of anything this week, click here.
We have a full slate of competition tomorrow, including finals for many of our athletes, which means we’ll have our first awards handed out tomorrow!
For a full schedule and to receive alerts when awards are handed out, be sure to download our Team Missouri mobile app. See information below on how to do that.
We will have individual sport updates tomorrow night, but here are a few things that came out of today after our delegates left Opening Ceremony:
- Basketball, tennis and bowling went to Healthy Athletes for free health screenings and we found out four athletes will receive free glasses, three will receive prescription goggles and three need a follow-up with a hearing specialist (and should eventually receive free hearing aids).
- We also learned that one bowling athlete has periodontal disease and will lose all of his teeth in the next few years. But because of these free health screenings, our coaches talked to an executive there who will be able to follow up with this athlete and they will receive free dentures.
We’ve had quite a few delegates write blogs for us in the last few days, so be sure to check those out below. They talk about their send-offs, their fun day around campus/downtown Seattle and of course today’s Opening Ceremony.
- Allison D’Agostino (Athlete-Leader PR Assistant)
- Josh Bucheit (Coach, Softball)
- Larry Hughes (Unified Partner, Bocce)
- Lynna Hodgson (Athlete, Track & Field)
We will have much more to update tomorrow, so stay tuned!
TEAM MISSOURI APP
Whether you will watch Team Missouri athletes compete in Seattle or you just want to follow their progress from afar, the Team Missouri mobile app has features to enhance your experience cheering them on:
- Schedules
- Newsletters/updates on daily competitions
- Maps/directions
- Communicate with other parents/coaches
- Photo gallery
- Alerts from SOMO
- SO MUCH MORE!
Check out this video tutorial on downloading and using the app.
There are two ways to download our app:
- Open the app store on your mobile device and search ‘Whova.’ Once Whova is downloaded, open that app and search ‘Team Missouri’ or ‘USA Games’ and select ‘2018 USA Games: Team Missouri’ and you’re good to go.
- Scan the QR code in the poster below to take you directly there
We will also be sending out nightly newsletters updating you on the progress of Team Missouri. Those newsletters will be emailed AND posted to the mobile app. If you want to receive the newsletters, but don’t want to sign up for the mobile app, please click here (if you received this email, you’re already signed up). The best way to stay up-to-date as competitions are going on, however, is to download the app and receive real-time alerts from Seattle!
We are still working on adding a few things here and there, so make sure you check back in near the end of June to get the full experience.
TEAM MISSOURI DELEGATION STAFFING
Management Team
Susan Shaffer — Head of Delegation
shaffer@somo.org 573-635-1660 or 573-489-4778
Brandon Schatsiek — Public Relations Manager
schatsiek@somo.org 573-635-1660 OR 573-821-4646
Support Staff
Jana Fornelli — GOC/SONA Family Liaison
fornelli@somo.org 417-624-5505
Laurie Shadoan — Fundraising
shadoan@somo.org 913-789-0353
Mandi Ballinger – Sendoff & Fundraising Websites
ballinger@somo.org 913-789-0338