Articles from December 2015

In the spirit of the holidays, Special Olympics Iowa is featuring 12 Days of Athletes throughout the month of December. In honor of these amazing athletes, please consider making your year-end donation to Special Olympics Iowa. If your donation is received by December 31, it will be DOUBLED!

DONATE NOW!

 Name: Melissa Silver
Age: 26
Delegation: Leon SIRF, South Central Area
SOIA sports I participate in: bowling, athletics (50 m dash and softball throw), basketball skills, softball skills and equestrian

What is your favorite part of Special Olympics? My favorite part is bowling.

What is a fun fact about yourself? I love to ride horses with my mom and sister, Abby.  My favorite food is meatball pizza.

What is your favorite part about the holiday season? My favorite thing about Christmas is that my sister Sam comes back to see us.

The Spahn and Rose Lumber Company, based out of Dubuque, has been a sponsor of the Special Olympics Iowa Winter Games for more than 10 years. Like many of SOIA’s sponsors, the company has gone beyond monetary donations, with employees volunteering their time to make the Winter Games a success.

Dan Wachtel, head of the IT department at Spahn and Rose, began volunteering at Alpine skiing events because a former volunteer asked for his help with setting up the race courses.

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The fourth annual Iowa Miss Amazing Pageant will be held January 29-30 at Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs. The mission of the Miss Amazing organization is to provide opportunities for girls and women with disabilities to gain confidence in a supportive and fun environment!

The pageant will have a new layout for 2016 that organizers hope will be more efficient for the growing number of participants. The new format will feature a two-day show and full areas of competition both days. Rising Stars, Pre-teens, Junior Teens and Teens will participate on Friday, January 29, while Junior Miss, Miss, Senior Miss and Shooting Stars will participate on Saturday, January 30. Girls ages five and older can participate.

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In the spirit of the holidays, Special Olympics Iowa is featuring 12 Days of Athletes throughout the month of December. In honor of these amazing athletes, please consider making your year-end donation to Special Olympics Iowa. If your donation is received by December 31, it will be DOUBLED! Gifts on #GivingTuesday (Dec. 1) will be TRIPLED!

DONATE NOW

Day 1

Name: Isaac Youngblood
Age: 20
Delegation: Marshalltown Bobcats, Central Area

What does Special Olympics mean to you? Special Olympics means that I get to meet new people.

What is a fun fact about yourself? I am very funny

What is your favorite part about the holiday season? I get to see my family.

Rachel Bosworth has been named the Law Enforcement Torch Run (LETR) Marketing and Event Coordinator for Special Olympics Iowa. She began her position in November.

She will help coordinate LETR events such as Cop on Top, Final Leg, Over the Edge, Pigskin Madness, Polar Plunges®, Tip a Cop and more.

Bosworth graduated from Coe College in 2015 with a degree in business administration and public relations. She has previously worked with the Alzheimer’s Association as a community outreach and events intern and with The Blue Zones Project as a marketing intern.

She has a volunteer history with Special Olympics, helping at Summer Games during her middle school and high school career.

Please join us in welcoming her to the state office team!

Thank you to all of our amazing athletes who submitted designs for our 2015 holiday card! We had a record number of entries this year and we loved them all so much, we could not pick just one!

The first artist selected was Tasha Conklin, a 23-year-old athlete from Sergeant Bluff. She was so excited her artwork was selected, that she feels like she won another Special Olympics medal!

The second artist selected was Tomi DeGrado from Marshalltown, who is also 23 years old. She created her design using thumb art, which she often does for cards and thank you notes.

Congratulations to Tasha and Tomi!

Artwork above by Tasha Conklin. Artwork below by Tomi DeGrado.

It is with great excitement that Special Olympics Iowa has opened two Endow Iowa agency funds. These funds demonstrate an investment in the athletes of both today and the future athletes of tomorrow.

An endowment fund is an investment fund held at a community foundation where the earnings are used as a source of income for the organization. There are currently two Endow Iowa agency funds: one held at the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines and one at the Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque. These two funds provide donors additional benefits through the Endow Iowa Tax Credit and will continue forever as a source of income to help with the growing number of athletes that Special Olympics Iowa continues to serve.

If you have any questions or would like information on how to give to these funds please contact Stuart Steffy (ssteffy@soiowa.org) at the state office.

Plunging for a Purpose has taken on a whole new meaning for the Betsworth family. Mitchell Betsworth has been a Special Olympics Iowa athlete since junior high and now at the age of 20, completed his sixth Polar Plunge®.

“I love running into the water,” Mitchell says.

Mitchell is a member of the Sioux City Knights, which had 10 athletes on three different plunge teams participate in the 2015 Siouxland Polar Plunge® on Oct. 24. The teams raised more than $18,500 for Special Olympics Iowa.

But, the tradition of the Polar Plunge® began long before the Knights were formed.

“We heard something 11 years ago on the radio on a Wednesday,” recalled Mitchell’s dad, Troy Betsworth. “We collected money the night before and I talked my brother into doing it with me. There was a need for raising money for Special Olympics and we thought we could help.”

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Because of forecasts of adverse winter weather conditions throughout the state of Iowa, the Special Olympics Iowa State Bowling Tournament, scheduled for Saturday, November 21, in Cedar Rapids, Des Moines and Sioux City has been cancelled. It will not be rescheduled.

The forecast continues to call for sleet, heavy snow and wind throughout the state on Friday and into the early hours of Saturday, with heavy winds continuing throughout the day on Saturday.

This was not an easy decision to make. We did our best to carefully consider all of the information available, including feedback from our delegations, athlete family members and volunteers, and weigh the consequences of moving forward with the event versus canceling it.  In the end, it came down to our commitment to your safety and to the safety of our athletes, coaches, families and volunteers.

If you have any questions, please feel free to call the state office at 515-986-5520.