Special Olympics Digging Deeper

Yesterday, our focus was geared toward academia and learning more about individuals with intellectual disabilities. The day began with a movie showing of "Monica and David," a documentary about two individuals with Down's Syndrome who fall in love and get married. Our group leaders, Nikki and Adam, lead the discussion by asking questions about socio-economic status, family structure, and our own reactions to the week. Students identified the challenges for families with loved ones who suffer from intellectual disabilities and how they struggle to find the line between protection and over-protection.

Students were then given independent time to work on their projects. Students are broken up into groups of three and will present on different subject matter related to Special Olympics and individuals with intellectual disabilities.

The day ended with an evening of pizza and group bonding at Ms. A's house. Students discussed the different elements of sports, teamwork, and what defines an athlete. We are so lucky to have such an incredible group!

Cheering hard!

The day started with our friends at the Special Olympics office in Manchester. We finished organizing and even helped build some fundraising signs. The most inspiring part of the morning came when Special Olympic althletes Courtney, Patti and Pam shared their stories and invovement within the organization. Pam talked about how her journey began with a fear of the phone, sensitivity to noise and tremendous shyness, but slowly evolved into a full time position as the receptionist at the Mancehster office where she answers the phone, interacts with new people and delegates tasks. Pam is now a gold medal winner and a Global embassador for Special Olympics. She travels around the world speaking in front of large audiences and advocating for individuals with disabilities. It was incredible to see how this organization empowers individuals and provides life skills that we are all still working to achieve.

Hailey, Pam and Patti are now facebook friends!
Making connections. Spidey and Mr Little
would be so proud! :)

The competition begins with Krista and
Lindsay's serious artistic talent.

Peirce and Patti. Is this closet organized yet!?

John and Patti's "fire" handshake.

Jakie Martel running the show. No surprises there.

We had to pull Spencer away from
building in order to eat lunch!

Cho and Ellie are all smiles all the time :)

After a break and some fried deliciousness, NHS Huskies travelled to Nashua for the semi finals of the Unified basketball tournament. It was a competitive and physical game with every athlete playing with passion and guts. The Huskies cheered, sang (so much singing), and made signs to show support.

Reflections of the day:

"Changing my mindset to look at our similarities, rather than our differences, made me realize how much we all have in common. I didn't feel like I "helped" Pam today, but instead we worked together and accomplished a lot."

-Jackie M.

"You could tell how proud the athletes are of their accomplishments. Heather carries her medals around with her and Courtney really lit up when she talked about the play she directed."

"You could tell the athletes wanted to make friends and were happy to talk to us and see us. They wanted to learn where we were from, about our families, and what sports we liked." 

-Elizabeth C.

Special Olympics Day 2

Day 2 is in the books! What a fun and exhausting day working at the Special Olympic office in Manchester. Who knew that working for a non-profit organization involved such attention to detail and challenging office work? NHS students helped Special Olympic Athletes organize fundraising material and complete data entry while getting to know one another and sharing stories. We also prepared for the Unified basketball game that we are attending tomorrow by making posters. The athletes helped us find slogans and sayings that would motivate them most during the game.

"We made posters for a Unified Basketball game and Patti wrote "get bucky's," which actually sounds way cooler than get buckets. We are gonna start saying that at NHS."
-Ellie

"The database stuff was really hard, but it was cool to learn how a non profit works and why someone would want to be a part of it."
-Jackie

"We started to develop relationships with the athletes. We know everyone's name. Peter is the man!"
-John

We are going to get some rest and gear up for a great day of building and basketball tomorrow!

Special Olympics Day 1

14 of New Hampton School's finest souls travelled to Manchester to work with Special Olympic athletes and administers. Students had the opportunity to meet individuals with intellectual disabilities and received an orientation of the organization. We shared stories, worked together, and began to understand the challenges that individuals with intellectual disabilities face throughout their lives.

Did you know that only 1 and 10 adults with intellectual disabilities will be gainfully employed? However, if they take part in the Special Olympics, that number changes to 3 out of 10!

Special Olympics uses sports as a vehicle to empower athletes and helps us realize that we have much more in common with individuals with disabilities than we think.

After a long day of cleaning, organizing, and helping prepare for the Winni Dip, NHS travelled to Nashua to watch a unified basketball game. We cheered our hearts out and were in awe of the athlete's determination, heart, and pure love of the game.

Can't wait for day two!!