Special Olympics festival success in Lee community

LEESBURG — It was a perfect spring day at Butterfly Kisses Play Park in Leesburg Saturday for the seventh annual Special Olympics Fundraiser Festival, better known as SOFF.

Presented by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, this year’s SOFF featured 22 carnival games positioned at the perimeter of the spacious grounds. There were cake walks, arts and crafts, as well as opportunities to bash an auto with hammers, ride a horse or dunk volunteers into the drink — all to the pounding beat of music from deejay Jaxon Riley.

Besides the fun for children of all ages, the object of the festival is to raise money for Special Olympics Georgia, an organization providing year-round Olympic style training and competition for children and adults with intellectual disabilities.

“It’s going great this year,” said Daphne Lindsey, who helped create the festival in 2008. “We have a pretty good turnout from the community and definitely a good one from our vendors and volunteers.”

Lindsey said on Saturday it was likely the Sheriff’s Office would meet it’s goal of $5,000 generated by the festival.

“The silent auction is our biggest money maker, bringing in about $2,000,” Lindsey said, “with food sales making another $1,000. The rest of the goal comes from all the other things.”

Karen Alonso attended the festival with her kids for the first time this year, she said, and was really glad they came.

“It’s such a beautiful day, so we decided to come out to enjoy the festival and support what they’re doing here. It’s great entertainment for the kids and it’s all for a good cause.”

According to Lindsey, winners of the silent auction would take home valuable merchandise at bargain basement prices. Items to be auctioned included gift certificates, golf clubs, jewelry, a bicycle, gift baskets and more — all donated from local businesses.

“This is going really well for the cause” said Lee County Sheriff Reggie Rachals. “We’ll see more people turning out as the day goes on.”