It is well documented that people with intellectual disabilities are less active than the general population. This is not due to their disability, but the lack of access to fitness education and opportunities that fit their needs. At Special Olympics, our mission is to provide sports opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities. In order for our athletes to truly perform at their best, they must be fit and healthy. The reality is that many of our athletes only practice their sport once a week, and competition seasons are only about three months long. This leaves a large gap throughout the year where athletes live sedentary lifestyles, putting them at risk for obesity, osteoporosis, high blood pressure, and diabetes. Special Olympics is filling that gap with three models of programs that encourage year-round fitness.

Fit Families, SOfit, and Unified Fitness Clubs are spreading worldwide throughout Special Olympics Programs. Each model works in a slightly different fashion to motivate, educate, and inspire fitness through physical activity, healthy eating, and proper hydration. So far, the programs have shown to be effective ways to encourage lifestyle change.

Learn more about our programs here!

The Hockessin Athletic Club (HAC) recently held its annual Family Fun Social and raised a total of $6,000, which they shared equally between DFRC and Special Olympics Delalware. The donation comes from numerous sources at HAC, including sales from the HAC Shack commissary stand and ticket sales from the annual camp social, held last week at HAC’s outdoor pool. HAC also raises funds through donations to a raffle and silent auction, which included numerous items from across the state. Special thanks to Bobby Carpenter, Marie Cantrell and the HAC staff for their generous support of our athletes. The funds donated to SODE will be used to support health and fitness programming.

Several athletes and Unified tennis players from Special Olympics Delaware played in the Middle States Qualifier for the United States Tennis Association Adaptive Regional Championship, held this past weekend at Riverwinds Tennis and Golf Club in New Jersey. The players were Andrew Crout and Beatriz Shipley, Claudia Brown and Colleen Yegla, Phil Saxon and Sue Riggs, Erin Bailey and Annemarie Pawlowicz, and Glenn Jones and Mary Moore. Glenn and Mary won the finals match 6-2 over the team from New Jersey and will advance to the USTA Adaptive National Championship in Orlando, Florida, on Dec 14-16.

Soon after President John F. Kennedy took office in 1961, his sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, launched a crusade to change the way the world treated -- or ignored -- mental retardation. This program gained credence as the Kennedys disclosed that one of their own, Rosemary Kennedy, had mental retardation. Throughout the 1960s, Eunice Shriver's commitment saw not only landmark legislation dealing with mental disabilities and disability rights but was also instrumental in bringing mental retardation out of the darkness and into the light of public acceptance. The genesis of Special Olympics was a summer day camp that Sargent and Eunice Shriver started in the backyard of their Maryland home. In July 1968, the world witnessed the first International Special Olympics Games at Soldier Field in Chicago. In December of that year, the Joseph P. Kennedy Foundation incorporated Special Olympics. Since then, Special Olympics has grown to become the largest program of its kind.