National Honor Society members from the Limestone Community School will once again be volunteering at the Special Olympic 2014 State Summer Games, held in Orono, ME on June 6-8.
The Special Olympics has a mission to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, giving them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in sharing of gifts, skills and friendship with their families, other Special Olympics athletes, and the community.
The events held at the Special Olympics last all year round, from January to the end of November, and include all types of traditional and non-traditional Olympic sports from basketball to bowling. However, the State and National Summer Games are the main events held every year for Special Olympic athletes to compete for gold, along with the help of dedicated volunteers like the National Honor Society students from Limestone.
For Limestone senior and NHS member Bailey St. Pierre this is her third year of involvement as a volunteer at the Special Olympics.
“The first year I volunteered we were asked to help keep things organized,” said St. Pierre. “We were assigned to help a number of different athletes as they made their way to the starting lines, and to their various events. We really just made sure everyone knew where to be and when to be there.”
St. Pierre’s fellow senior and NHS member Alexis Bell will be volunteering for her second year in a row this year, and recalls last year being somewhat unorganized, but nonetheless the students were there to cheer the athletes on.
“Last year it was a little hectic and there were already so many other students there to volunteer that we weren’t really assigned any specific tasks,” said Bell. “But, we still stood by the outside of the track and cheered all the athletes on.”
Bell and St. Pierre aren’t quite sure what they and their fellow NHS members will be tasked with for the upcoming Special Olympic State Games in June, but they will certainly all be in attendance to do whatever is necessary to help, and to cheer on all those athletes who take to the field in their respective sports.
