Special Olympics
| Briggs Field | ||
| Saturday, June19, 1999 | Sunday, June 20, 1999 | |
Thanks to the awesome folks who helped out on Saturday & Sunday, inspiring the Special Olympics athletes to reach new heights (sorry for the sappiness, sounds like schlock, but it's really true).
On Saturday Jingfeng Wang, Debby Hyams, Zhichao (Kathy) Yuan, Audrey Chang, and myself helped out w/ track & field events: some conventional and some geared towards these physically-challenged but REALLY enthusiastic athletes.
On Sunday Audrey and I (partly) were back, along with Kurt Yamaguchi
(whom I caught at one point doing a little karaoke on the announcer's
mic), Gloria George, Rob "not only intended for grilling" Jagnow,
and Janice Lee
helping out w/ the aquatics action. Afterwards, everyone got to see "Mr.
Travelling Freakshow" Spohr speaking Chinese (or a lame proxy thereof)
w/ the staff over a late lunch at Mary Chung's. Once assured the sweet&sour
pork sauce was indeed free of either kimchi or grapenuts, Rob licked the
plate clean (figuratively).
Back to the essential... think ev. agreed that it was like the "real" Olympics, but without the attitude. What psyched us up more was that the experience for these mentally/physically challenged athletes seems to be worth at least as much as some million $ shoe ad contract for Carl Lewis, etc. For me, the essence was captured by the jubilant celebration by one 13 year old girl upon reaching 1.62 meters in the softball toss (i.e. maybe the shortest throw I'd seen that day, but the HAPPIEST response), or by the little boy who, although almost being too sick to participate, joined the group w/ a little encouragement and won in a come from behind race in 50m freestyle.
Best quotes overheard of the day:
#3) (on rec. a bronze medal among 3 contestants... enthusiasm unbent)
"Special Olympics is TOO SWEET!"
#2) "There's no place I'd rather be today".
#1) (Debby & I concur on this one, a response from an athlete to his father/coach following the loud-speaker announcement for the 'motor-assisted wheelchair race') "Here's my motor!" (pointing to his arms)
Sincerest thanks to those who added their enthusiasm and energy to make S.O. such a success. Hope to see you July 5th at the soup kitchen. Thanks.
-Chris
MIT Graduate Student Volunteer Corps
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