Deerfield-Windsor to host Special Olympics

Editor’s Note: The author is a senior at Deerfield-Windsor and President of the DWS Student Council.

It was the second semester of my freshman year at Deerfield-Windsor and the varsity basketball dance line members were crouched in a circle on the cold linoleum floor of the W.T. Henry Gym lobby. Jennifer Walden, the former sponsor for Basketball Danceline, walked up to our circle of stretches and bequeathed to us some news she had been anticipating to tell us until the right moment — we were given the privilege to be the entertainment at the Opening Ceremonies of the local Special Olympics.

At first, I didn’t realize the honor, but it began to kick in when the eight of us somewhat nervously filed into the gymnasium on Albany State University’s campus as we awaited our turn in the Opening Ceremonies lineup.

The dancing wasn’t even the main part of what had such an impact on us in the short 45 minutes we were there. It was the students who proudly paraded their handmade banners around the gym for the judges to see. It was the students who reacted excitedly and applauded noisily as they conveyed how honored they were just to be attending the event. It was the students who were ecstatic to be awarded even fourth-place and who dashed to the center of the court to receive their trophies that were just a bit smaller than the others. Somewhere in the mix, I realized how uniquely important the Special Olympics were.

This past summer I first started formulating ideas about which issues and projects I wanted to address within the year I had as Student Council President. Amidst my thoughts and scribbled notes sprung an important discovery — the student body, myself included, at Deerfield-Windsor School can sometimes lack general gratitude and a sense of awareness of the situations in our community that differ from our own.

Long about this time, the eye-opening experience the danceline had my freshman year popped into my head, along with the desire to translate our experience into something the entire student body could experience as well. And then I realized that was exactly what Deerfield-Windsor could do — we could host the local Special Olympics.

I had no idea how much the local chapter started planning the Games in advance, so I hurriedly asked Walden for the local coordinator’s contact information and sent him an email inquiring if the board would consider a change in location. I wasn’t sure that I had even obtained the correct email address, but a few days later, Russ Allen responded to my email by saying he along with the Dougherty County Special Olympics team, would love to consider our campus as the new location for the Spring Games.

During the next couple of months after this initial email sequence, the proposal to host the Games began to solidify a bit more. In August at the beginning of this school year, Student Council officers Helena Augenstein, Maggie Ricks, Matt Williams, Lanier Freeman and I met at the local Starbucks to finalize Homecoming plans and to discuss if hosting the Special Olympics was a project to which we wanted to commit.

Almost immediately, we agreed. After meeting with Student Council sponsor Janet Guillebeau, Upper School Director Geoffrey Sudderth and Headmaster Dave Davies and sending a deluge of emails to Allen, we got the final ounce of approval we needed and subsequently set up a meeting with the board of Special Olympics Dougherty.

The day of the meeting, the five officers all made our way to the Dougherty County School System Special Programs building and after streamlining our ideas on the ride over, we felt more than ready for anything the board members could have thrown at us. After we prepared thorough explanations and provided details such as maps of the campus, the board unanimously voted that Deerfield-Windsor would host of the local Special Olympics on Friday, April 29.

After years of the Games being held at Albany State University, and even a few years when there was not enough funding to organize the Games at all, the board members saw an opportunity that until now had not been presented to them.

We have an entire body of students, faculty, and parents—in addition to members from the rest of the community— ready to make these Special Olympics unparalleled in their success. April 29th has the potential to be one of the, for lack of a better word, coolest events our school—and our community—has ever hosted. It has the potential to be really special, as long as we strive to make it special. I hope that it will not only address matters within our school but also across our community, such as bridging the gap between public and private schools in the area and instilling a sense of gratitude and togetherness during a time we may possibly need it the most.

Just as I remembered my first experience with Special Olympics long after it had passed, I hope the experience will be the same for all of you.

The Opening Ceremonies will begin at 9:30 a.m. in the Henry Gym, and the Olympic Games will begin shortly thereafter at Webb Memorial Stadium. Parking will be available on Nottingham Way.