Last week I finally got to participate in my first
event with the Special Olympics. It was
the Long Beach Unified School District Games held at Cabrillo High School. The daylong event consisted of mainly of
track and field events with school age athletes- generally elementary and high
school aged students.
Prior to the event, Brandon, emailed all the
scheduled volunteers to notify them of their positions along with a few
reminders and directions. I appreciated
the email very much. It gave me a sense
of order and preparedness and further indicated that the event would be
properly organized and well run. In
addition to notifying me that I would be working as an “awards coordinator” and
providing me an overview of my responsibilities for the day, Brandon
additionally enclosed a reminder on proper etiquette in working with special needs
individuals. He writes,
WORKING
WITH SPECIAL OLYMPICS ATHLETES:
People with intellectual disabilities and
those without intellectual disabilities are more alike than different. If you're unsure of how to respond to a
person with an intellectual disability,
ask yourself how you would want someone to treat you. Both adults and children compete in Special Olympics events.
Adults should be treated as adults. Use the term
"athletes" when speaking about our competitors. Talk with the
athletes the same way you
would with anyone else. Use conversational tone and eye contact. Let the person
know that you are interested in
him or her.
Most of the athletes you will meet are very
friendly and will enjoy your attention, but it is also important to encourage appropriate behavior.
Behavior that is not appropriate among persons
WITHOUT disabilities is also not appropriate among persons WITH disabilities. Enjoy the interactions that are part
of the Special Olympic experience, but don't be afraid to establish limits.
I admit that I hadn’t considered this scenario. Obviously I knew I would be interacting with
people with disabilities, but I suppose I did not expect to experience the
level of interaction that my position would entail. I consider myself to be a politically correct,
and a morally kind individual, regardless, I found the prompt to be very
helpful and found myself going back to the reminder at least once during the
day. It was a lesson that not all unkind
actions are due to callousness, but also due to unpreparedness and
thoughtlessness.
I arrived at Cabrillo High School at 7:30am,
earlier than I like to wake. After a
wrong turn and a lovely self guided tour through the port of Long Beach, I
finally found my way to the location. I
felt the arrival time was a bit early, as after setting up a shade canopy, I
was left with nothing to do for about an hour.
However, better safe than sorry.
It seems that seasoned volunteers arrive later just prior to the start
of the games, while new volunteers are expected early to set up chairs and what
not. This seems fair enough, except
there was some confusion as the other volunteer and I believed it would just be
the two of us and were left to attempt to strategize and decipher the detailed
instruction binder on running the awards station. But alas, the experienced volunteers arrived
and we received detailed instruction on our duties.
The event began on time with a fairly large attendance
from what I understand. As awards
coordinator, my position took some time to get going as the kids needed to
compete first, but sure enough, we were busy before we knew it. I did a mix of multitasking at the tent. It’s a bit hard to describe but I basically “made”
the awards (affixed a sticker to the back of the ribbon and put a safety pin on
it,) accepted the event scoring sheets from the runners coming from each event
station, and then helped with the staging of the kids for the presentation of
their awards. Sounds easy enough, but it
certainly got hectic. Namely because the
athletes in each heat would compete and then arrive at the awards tent at
varying times. And due to the nature of
some of the kid’s disabilities, it was unreasonable to have them waiting for
the entire group to arrive for the ceremony or make it to the tent in a hurry
as many had physical disabilities as well.
Therefore numerous ceremonies were incomplete. Although I don’t think this was a negative
issue really. One unfortunate problem at
times, though, was because it got so hectic, some athletes ended up sitting in
the staging area for long periods- and even worse, after their names had been
called. I think the confusion could be
relived with the use of multiple scoring sheets from each of the separate event
stations. Carbon copies would be a great
idea. This would allow for one sheet to
go directly to the record book, one to the coordinator handling awards, and one
to address late arrivals on whether or not their names had been called. However, I assume any non-necessary expenses
for a non-profit organization would be difficult to justify. The system does work adequately; although carbon
copied sheets would contribute to a better flow and create a more enjoyable
experience for the volunteers (thus encouraging returns) and athletes all
around.
I would have to say my favorite aspect of the
day was meeting the children. Seeing the
smiles on their faces and joy they experienced was unbelievably
gratifying. Many were so proud of
themselves that they didn’t want to leave the staging area when they got their ribbons. The sweetness of the kids certainly affected
me. I can see how ongoing volunteerism
is the norm for the Special Olympics. I
admit, that although the program needs hands on helpers, I would really rather
just work as a spectator and cheer on the kids.
It was too fun.
The lunch provided was great. Good chips.
