This week our little village had the "Cops on Top" effort to raise funds for Special Olympics. The village police department had their officers perched atop the Dunkin Donuts store in town, as were MANY police officers perched on roof tops across America to support Special Olympics. First a little bit about Special Olympics.
I learned about Special Olympics when I was a young woman because my father was a big supporter of the Special Olympians. My dad, an avid runner, former soccer player, former rugby player, was always involved with sports of some kind. Both my parents believed that ALL children should be given the ability to explore their gifts and talents. They LOVE children :) The Special Olympics has a very long and really wonderful history http://www.specialolympics.org/history.aspx Giving all kids with intellectual disabilities AND their families the certain knowledge that their disability was no bar to athletic endeavor. We focus on the kids but there is a support network of people behind the scenes working every day to be sure that the Special Olympics has the money and the talent necessary to make each year successively better! My husband had an Uncle with an intellectual disability due to a birth accident so when, in 2012, I found Red Heart was encouraging people to make scarves for the Winter Special Olympics I was very happy and proud. I may not have been able to help Tom's uncle I could help others. 2012 was the last year that Red Heart as a company decided to sponsor this effort because the number of scarves donated outnumbered the athletes! Red Heart distributed the excess in the 2013 cames. As a result many states individually have kept up the tradition and therefore Red Heart still has the patterns available for use. http://www.redheart.com/search/?text=special+olympics! How can you help? First, ask! For instance Special Olympics NY has a facebook page dedicated to the North Country region. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Special-Olympics-NY-North-Country/110421212386037?fref=ts Check your social networking pages to see if your state has a Special Olympics page and if so ASK if they would be interested in scarves for their athletes. Then depending on how many athletes there are get a group together for the express purpose of making scarves for your local Special Olympians. In order to save time the good people at Colouring With Yarn have compiled a list of the states collecting scarves for their athletes in 2016 https://colouringwithyarn.wordpress.com/special-olympics-scarf-project-2/2015-special-olympics-scarf-project-2/ I find that some of the rural areas or some of the crowded city populations are hard pressed to find volunteers to do things like make scarves for their Special Olympians. However, if the public school where my husband is a Teaching Assistant is anything to go by, they know which students are participating in or training for Special Olympics. Its never a bad thing to approach a school board member or call the school administration to see if you can be of assistance to the kids, or their parents. There are so many ways to help besides knit and crochet. And the smiles? OH the smiles are SO worth it. I'm so thankful for my knitting and crocheting community. You all are the most giving and caring group of people! Thank you for reading today.
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