Special Olympics

In an effort to encourage my children to volunteer to help others and an effort to help them appreciate how capable they are to do anything they put their minds to, I signed up the whole family to volunteer at the regional Special Olympics today. My husband knew about this months ago. My son I told days ago. My daughter was suprised when we arrived at the stadium.

We, as a family, were assigned as timers for four of the eight track lanes for the 50-meter dash. Athletes of all sizes, ages, races, abilities, and gender ran in that event. It was nice to watch my kids get excited for the runner they were timing, and to see them cheer on all the athletes. It was nice to see them get comfortable with the athletes, instead of fearing or maybe even mocking them, [which I've never seen them do, and I would like to believe they never do, but they are in Junior High, so it is possible]. I'd like to think they learned something today about people with special needs and hopefully, about themselves. I did get in a few of my "moral of the story" points today, but you never know what they really absorb and what bounces right off of them.

So four hours later we were hot, tired, sunburned, and hungry, but hopefully a little more sensitive to what is possible in the world.

"History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats."
-- B. C. Forbes