2014 Special Olympics Florida State Summer Games Changes Attitudes At ESPN Wide World of Sports This Weekend!
The 2014 Special Olympics Florida State Summer Games were held at ESPN Wide World of Sports over the last two days. It was a great opportunity to empower those individuals with intellectual disabilities to become physically fit, productive and respected members of society through sports training and competition.
The event was part of the Special Olympics series of events that offers children and adults with intellectual disabilities year-round training and competition in 30 Olympic-type summer and winter sports.
It all began in the 1950s and early 1960s, when Eunice Kennedy Shriver saw how unjustly and unfairly people with intellectual disabilities were treated. She also saw that many children with intellectual disabilities didn’t even have a place to play. She decided to take action.
Soon, her vision began to take shape, as she held a summer day camp for young people with intellectual disabilities in her own backyard. The goal was to learn what these children could do in sports and other activities – and not dwell on what they could not do.
Throughout the 1960s, Eunice Kennedy Shriver continued her pioneering work — both as the driving force behind President John F. Kennedy’s White House panel on people with intellectual disabilities and as the director of the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation. Her vision and drive for justice eventually grew into the Special Olympics movement.
In 1968, Mrs. Shriver organized the first International Special Olympics Games at Soldier Field in Chicago, in the belief that the lessons these athletes learned through sports would translate into new competence and success in school, in the workplace, and in the community. Above all, Mrs. Shriver wanted the families and neighbors of people with intellectual disabilities to see what these individuals could accomplish, to take pride in their efforts, and to rejoice in their victories.
Today, Special Olympics Inc. is the world’s largest provider of fitness training, education and athletic competition — coupled with social, life, and leadership skill development opportunities — for children and adults with intellectual disabilities or a similar developmental disability. Special Olympics Florida, an accredited program of Special Olympics Inc., was founded in 1972 and is one of the largest volunteer-driven athletic organizations in the state.
Special Olympics is a worldwide movement where one can act locally, but make a global impact. With over 53,000 competitions around the world, with training taking place every day, with family leaders, athlete leaders and volunteers extending their message every day, Special Olympics is no longer just an event. They are a movement, inviting the world not just to attend Games but to think, feel, and act differently about everything.
Here at Florida Leisure we are proud to support their efforts and we hope you will join in as well. More photographs appear at www.FloridaLeisurePhotography.com and every cent earned through the sale of these photographs will be donated to Special Olympics Florida.
