Best of All: Better Together

When we think of our Special Olymipcs Young Athletes (SOYA) program we think of :

Athletes, Inspiration and Creativity

We started writing this Blog about the incredible effort each of our participants put into their hour long class each week.

We wanted to share about:

• the risks they each took in going out of their comfort zones
• the determination we saw in every new sport they tried
• the smiles and cheering we experienced when they accomplished their “Best of all” with something they hadn’t done before
• the sportsmanship that came naturally when the parents, siblings and athletes cheered each other on

But then we thought we should  really tell you about the passionate volunteers that led this program.

We wanted to share how impressive this trio of college students/newly graduated alum were.

Jenna, Emma and Emily aren’t volunteering because they have to – they’re volunteering because they WANT to.  They each have very full days and still chose to Uber to the Playhouse early each Saturday to give us their “Best of All” each and every week.

We wanted to share:

• how prepared they were for each week’s lesson
• how their passion came through with the encouragement they gave each athlete
• how creative they were with setting up the equipment
• how they went above and beyond with the closing ceremony and how they made awards for each athlete and a selfie frame to commemorate the class

We realized that we couldn’t tell one story without the other because like everything we do at GiGi’s, we are truly BETTER TOGETHER!

The relationship the families, atheletes and volunteers formed is why each group was able to give their Best of All and why there was so much happiness and success each week.

We will be running this program again in Spring 2022 and the volunteers have agreed to come back!
Everyone can’t wait to see the amazing things accomplished this next time around.