Whenever Special Olympics athletes and Unified partners come together, the atmosphere is buzzing with excitement and energy. It’s a quiet time of year on the UW-Madison campus, but the presence of Special Olympics makes it lively, especially on the southeast side of campus near the Gordon Dining & Event Center and Ogg Residence Hall. 200 youth participants, adult mentors, honored guests, sponsors, and Special Olympics staff gathered on campus for the SONA 2024 National Leadership Event: Toward Inclusion and Beyond from June 25-28. In a first-of-its-kind event, Unified leaders and U.S. Youth Ambassadors came together to learn ways to promote inclusion across their communities as they graduate from high school or embark on the next journey in their lives.
the American Youth Ambassadors They are young leaders with or without Intellectual disabilities Who strive to make their communities more inclusive. They are advocates for the rights of people with disabilities, storytellers, and examples of what inclusion looks like and how to show it.
Over the course of two years, the U.S. Youth Ambassadors will learn leadership skills to advocate for the importance of Special Olympics in their school communities and beyond. “Young people are leading us forward; they are the next generation to fill the jobs; they are the next generation to set the pace and tone for communities,” said Lexie O’Brien, director of university engagement at Unified Heroes SchoolsHe talks about the importance of the Youth Ambassadors, who played a key role in planning and managing the event.
Just as Youth Ambassadors lead by example in their home country and in the broader Special Olympics movement, the host site serves as a model of inclusion and leadership on campus.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison has Special Olympics Unified Champions Schools® “They do programming, for many reasons, they’ve been a really great partner with Special Olympics and they have a really engaged campus recreation department,” O’Brien says. “So for everyone here this week to experience campus, I hope it gives them a glimpse into what it can be like to be on campus.”
This was the first time many of the attendees had the opportunity to live in college housing, eat in the dining halls, and use the campus recreation centers. It was a chance to get a glimpse into college life. At various points throughout the week, many of the athletes mentioned things like, “I want to go to college,” or “Something like this is possible for me.”
Broadening horizons was not limited to attendance alone.
Amanda drape Thwing serves as director of conferences, events and office services at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, overseeing the organizational development of the event from a housing, dining and campus space perspective. Coincidentally, Thwing’s son is a Special Olympics Wisconsin athlete, and having that connection made the task at hand even more important. “For me, it was exciting to see a different side of Special Olympics in places where I could maybe encourage people to get involved,” Thwing says of her role in making the event happen. “One of the things I was involved in was planning and meeting all of the North American staff, which was exciting.”
On the first day of the event, Ray Roberts, senior consultant for urban school development, stood in the center of the main conference room. With so many participants spread out at tables, he was impossible to ignore, with his tall, athletic body.
Roberts delivered the opening remarks and shared some of his experiences playing for the Seattle Seahawks and how he made an impact after the event. Athletes, unified partners, mentors, distinguished guests and Special Olympics staff will learn a variety of leadership skills over the course of three days. They will then be tasked with implementing plans on how to continue to promote inclusion throughout their lives and communities.
“There’s something about the Special Olympics that a lot of people might not realize because until you’re here and in the community, you don’t understand the energy that everyone has,” says guest star Scobie Magiza of ESPN, who represented ESPN By presenting at a panel discussion titled “A Giant Leap Towards Inclusion: How to Celebrate Inclusion in Your Career and Community Beyond Special Olympics.”
Additional special guests include Valerie Williams, director, Office of Special Education ProgramsThe Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services, and leaders from 17 partner organizations including KPMG and American bank.
Youth Ambassadors Raelyn Zanon and Thomas Blair have been friends since their freshman year of high school, attending Stillwater High School in Minnesota. Now in their sophomore year of college, they are also entering their second year as Youth Ambassadors. “We didn’t really know each other at the time (freshman year), but we got to know each other over the years, and we really found our friendship in our third year,” Zanon says.
“It’s not just a sport, it’s a way of life,” Blair says.
A lifestyle that requires some hard work along the way.
Both Zanon and Blair said they started helping plan and create a business plan for the national leadership event in October 2023. After monthly calls and nine months of planning, the anticipation and seeing everything come together paid off. Zanon says her favorite part is “we plan the events and the work we put into them, and now we see it actually come to fruition.”
In the end, each attendee benefited from the event in a different way. They learned about education, how to be trainercampus intramural sports, money habits, career development, and more. But what stood out most was the first day’s panel discussion, “Toward Inclusive Higher Education and Beyond,” which discussed different pathways to higher education, such as transitional programs, career school opportunities, and more. All around the conference room, eyes were open, chests were up, and questions were asked. A fresh perspective was shared in a community often prone to the misconception that higher education is unattainable. The event was designed for Unitarian leaders and U.S. Youth Ambassadors to learn ways to continue to be inclusive in their communities as they age. And they gained so much more. Maybe it was planned that way, or maybe it just happened to be what set the tone for the week by accident, but whatever the case, the message was sent and received by all in attendance.
