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Win-win with the Special Olympics World Games in L.A.

You may not know it, but the world’s biggest sports and humanitarian event is coming to Los Angeles this summer, and its impact will be felt locally long after the medals are handed out.
[additional-authors]
March 11, 2015

You may not know it, but the world’s biggest sports and humanitarian event is coming to Los Angeles this summer, and its impact will be felt locally long after the medals are handed out. In just a few months, the World Games of the Special Olympics will launch at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on July 25, with 7,000 athletes from more than 170 countries, all marching in with their nation’s flag for the opening ceremony. The games will continue through Aug. 2.

There will be 25 sports competitions held around Southern California, including at UCLA and USC, downtown Los Angeles, Long Beach, Griffith Park and the Balboa Sports Complex in Encino. It will also be L.A.’s most widespread public event since the 1984 Olympics. Held every two years, alternating between summer and winter games, the Special Olympics World Games aim to expand the circle of acceptance and inclusion of all people. 

I had the chance to hear Patrick McClenahan, president and CEO of the 2015 Special Olympics World Games, speak at a recent nonprofit workshop sponsored by Green Hasson Janks, an accounting firm that counts many nonprofits as its clients, among them the Journal, as well as the Special Olympics Southern California and the World Games. 

McClenahan, father of an adult daughter with a developmental disability, updated us on the progress of the games and encouraged everyone present to participate as a volunteer and a fan. He said that as great as it is for the Special Olympics athletes to have supportive fans to cheer them on while competing, the fans themselves get even more out of the experience of being there, learning firsthand about “the spirit of doing your best — courage, determination and joy.”

To pull off such a massive event at so many venues, the World Games will need 30,000 volunteers and also is recruiting groups of people to sign up ahead of time as “Fans in the Stands.” Team captains must be at least 14 years of age and will be responsible for recruiting 10 or more people to come support the athletes during competition. Over the event’s nine days, organizers are estimating that 500,000 spectators will turn out.

The first Special Olympics World Games were held in 1968 in Chicago, under the leadership of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, sister of President John F. Kennedy, and mother of former first lady of California Maria Shriver and recent L.A. County Supervisor candidate Bobby Shriver. Eunice started the Special Olympics as a summer day camp in the family’s backyard in 1962, at a time when children with intellectual disabilities were still routinely placed in state hospitals and other institutions. (Eunice was very close to her sister, Rosemary, who had an intellectual disability made worse after their father, Joe Kennedy, scheduled a lobotomy for her without telling his wife, leaving Rosemary with limited motor and speaking skills.)

Since the first World Games in 1968, the event has grown to be much more than a chance for children and teens with intellectual disabilities to play sports and make friends; the Special Olympics movement has grown to more than 4.4 million athletes around the world, supported by more than 1.3 million coaches and volunteers.

Along with all the other international delegations coming to participate in the Los Angeles World Games, the games will include 40 Special Olympics athletes from Israel, along with their coaches, doctor and other members of their support team, making a total of 67 in their delegation. The Israeli Special Olympics athletes were selected by a lottery system and will be participating in many different sports, including bowling and kayaking, in which typical athletes play alongside special athletes.

Prior to the games, each country’s delegation will be hosted July 21-23 by a Southern California “host town” for recreation, entertainment and cultural events. The Israeli delegation’s host town will be Leo Baeck Temple, where one of the congregants, eighth-grader Lucy Meyer, has been a very active part of Special Olympics, and in fact, is a Global Messenger — a Special Olympics athlete now playing a leadership role for the 2015 Special Olympics World Games. Lucy’s mother, Jamie, is very enthusiastic about the positive role special Olympics has played in the life of her daughter for many years, and looks forward to sharing that Olympic spirit with the entire Los Angeles Jewish community. There will be more opportunities for community sponsors during the host town period, with details to be finalized soon.

In addition, Susan North Gilboa, the director of the OurSpace Program based at Valley Beth Shalom and Temple Aliyah for members of the Jewish community with special needs and abilities, currently is fundraising to help Team Israel with the costs associated with coming to L.A. The families of the Israeli athletes were asked to raise a total of 320,000 shekels ($85,000) by March 31, and the Special Olympics Israel board is also helping to raise the needed total of $250,000. (You can donate at SOI.org.il and indicate it is for Special Olympics Israel/World Games L.A. 2015.)

There is also a need for home hospitality for family members of the athletes, and L.A. American/Israeli Jewish community members also will be invited especially to cheer during the events in which the Israeli athletes are playing. This will be a win-win experience, no matter who finishes in first place at each event. As the motto for the Special Olympics says, “Let me win. But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt.”


Michelle K. Wolf writes a monthly column for the Jewish Journal. Visit her Jews and Special Needs blog at jewishjournal.com/jews_and_special_needs.

For more information about World Games of the Special Olympics, go to http://www.la2015.org/

If you want to help sponsor Host Town Santa Monica Mountains for the Israel Delegation, contact Jamie Meyer at jamieg1313@aol.com for Leo Baeck Temple or donate at https://support.la2015.org/checkout/donation?eid=43978  and if you want to provide home hospitality for family members of Team Israel, contact Susan North Gilboa at sngilboa@vbsds.org 

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