Articles from April 2017

Ankeny Play Day and Its Impact

By Chelsey Kimmel-Kendrick 

More than 425 young children came together to participate in several sports for the Ankeny Play Day on Thursday, April 20 at Ankeny Centennial High School. This is one of many events that is sponsored by one of Special Olympics Iowa’s Premier Statewide Partners, Sammons Financial Group.

Play Days are events where children between the ages of two and seven with intellectual disabilities can play activities and have socialization opportunities. Since athletes cannot participate in Special Olympics events until they’re eight years old, these days were created for those to participate in a more formal setting.IMG_2855

Mary Buscher, human resources consultant for Sammons, says nearly 80 employees from the organization signed up to volunteer for the event. She said Play Days are an event where people do it once and then get hooked.

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Iowa State Greek Community Raises Over $377,000 for SOIA

SpecOlymIA-685On Saturday, April 1 the Iowa State University Greek Community and SOIA hosted the 21st annual Ames Greek Polar Plunge.

 

The ISU Greek Community were the sole participants in the Plunge as part of their annual Greek Week. This year the Greeks raised over $377,132.94, a record high for the single largest one-day fundraising event for Special Olympics Iowa. Participants jumped into an above ground 8,500 gallon pool located on the west side of Memorial Union on the ISU campus.

 

Because of the wonderful effort of the students, the ISU Greek Community is now officially a Champion Statewide Partner for Special Olympics Iowa.

 

Thank you to everyone who donated, supported, and assisted with this event!

 

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2017 Drake University Unified Sports Day to take place May 4

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By Chelsey Kimmel-Kendrick 

Special Olympics Iowa’s 23rd annual Drake Unified Sports Day will be taking place on Thursday, May 4 at Drake University in the Knapp Center, where people with and without intellectual disabilities are joined together to compete on the same team.

Dedicated to promoting social inclusion through shared sports training and competition, Unified Sports creates teams that are made up of similar ages and abilities. The teams are made up of approximately an equal number of Special Olympic athletes and athletes without intellectual or mental disabilities; these are called partners. The idea behind Unified Sports is to eliminate the preconceived notions and false impressions of Special Olympics athletes.

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