In this season of Thanksgiving, I am thankful for the late Eunice Kennedy Shriver and her remarkable vision that created the Special Olympics. And I am grateful for the thousands of folks who work to keep that dream alive.
I recently attended the Special Olympics Arizona Breakfast With Champions, part of a sellout crowd of 650. A good friend invited me, and what a gift that invitation turned out to be. This was the most moving event I have attended in many years.
We learned that in Arizona alone, there are 180,000 people living with intellectual disabilities. Until recently, those citizens had few options for education, sports, jobs and all the everyday aspects of life so many of us take for granted. To help meet these needs, Special Olympics Arizona lives by the motto “Donate, Volunteer, Participate.” We can all help.
At the breakfast, we heard from featured speaker Loretta Claiborne, a Special Olympics athlete who has dedicated her life to showing that people with developmental disabilities are uniquely talented but often overlooked or ignored. Special is a most appropriate word for this remarkable woman.
Claiborne was born partially blind, intellectually disabled and unable to walk or talk until age 4. She was able to overcome tremendous adversity to become a world-class, award-winning Special Olympics athlete and motivational speaker. A partial list of her achievements includes:
>> finishing 26 marathons, twice placing among the top 100 women in the Boston Marathon;
>> competing in seven International Special Olympics World Games in distance running, bowling and figure skating;
>> winning the 1996 ESPY Arthur Ashe Award for courage from ESPN; and
>> being inducted into the Women in Sports Hall of Fame, Special Olympics Pennsylvania.
In her spare time, she has become fluent in four languages, earned a black belt in karate, and has been conferred honorary doctorate degrees in humane letters from Quinnipiac University and Villanova University.
Those accomplishments would have been unlikely before Eunice Kennedy Shriver started her lifelong quest to improve the lives of the intellectually challenged.
Mrs. Shriver was inspired to act by the plight of her older sister Rosemary, who lived with what was then referred to as a “mild form of retardation” and was institutionalized most of her life.
Mrs. Shriver was frustrated by two things: the lack of athletic opportunities for women and the realization of how much worse it was for people who were intellectually challenged, who rarely received any form of education. So she set out to shake things up.
The first Special Olympics was held in 1968 in Chicago, with 1,000 athletes participating and about 100 people in the stands. Today, more than 3 million athletes representing 180 countries participate in the biennial games.
The athletes compete according to this oath: “Let me win, but if I cannot win let me be brave in the attempt.”
The late Fred Rogers (Mister Rogers) told the story about a particular race in a Special Olympics competition — the 100-yard dash — in which nine contestants competed:
“All nine of them assembled at the starting line and, at the sound of the gun, they took off. But one little boy didn’t get very far. He stumbled and fell and hurt his knee and began to cry. The other eight children heard the boy crying. They slowed down, turned around and ran back to him — every one of them ran back to him. The little boy got up, and he and the rest of the runners linked their arms together and joyfully … finished the race at the same time. And when they did, everyone in the stadium stood up and clapped and whistled and cheered for a long, long time.”
And these stories are not unusual.
Mrs. Shriver addressed the athletes at the 1987 Special Olympics World Games in South Bend, Ind., with these inspiring words: “You are the stars, and the world is watching you. By your presence you send a message to every village, every city, every nation. A message of hope. A message of victory. The right to play on any playing field? You have earned it. The right to study in any school? You have earned it. The right to hold a job? You have earned it. The right to be anyone’s neighbor? You have earned it.”
Mackay’s Moral: Want to show your gratitude in a special way? Contact your local Special Olympics organization, and I guarantee you’ll get more than you give!
