Mesa to host Summer Special Olympics

Matt Wilhalme

Competitors from across the country will be taking the field to compete for gold medals at MCC this summer as Mesa hosts its first Olympic ceremony.The 2009 Summer Special Olympics will take place at MCC at the end of April.

The four day event starting on a Thursday with opening ceremonies, includes dinner and a dance that will be held throughout the campus on various fields and courts.

Expecting eight to 10 thousand participants this summer, the Special Olympics will be providing nearly 3,800 volunteers of their own.

Additionally, in place of a facility fee the school will be awarded a $10,000 endowment to be received in three years, and subsequently awarded each year after that, according to Wink Harner Manager of the Disability Resources and Services.

The money from the scholarship will be awarded to students who meet specific qualifications, to be decided by the DRS, used for technology or other approved needs.

The school has been bidding to host the event for the past two years and was recently successful in securing the event.

Harner said, she has been working with Jared Langkilde, Executive Director of Marketing for MCC, to add this event to MCC’s list of achievements, and involved the athletic department after receiving a phone call from the Special Olympics.

“I got a call from the Special Olympics, so I went to Jeff Fore, and he said it would be perfect because there is a service learning component to athletic program and we’ll have built in volunteers,” said an excited Harner describing the meeting.

“One thing I required when I came to MCC was to require that every team be involved in a community service project of some sort,” said Jeff Fore, Athletic Director of MCC.

Over the winter break the women’s basketball team participated in a canned food drive for a local food bank.

The MCC golf team also got in the giving spirit, and donated their efforts to the “Adopt-A-Family” drive to help support families in need during the holiday season.

Athletes from the various athletic programs will help oversee the full spectrum of events taking place on their home fields.

During the past two years, the Special Olympics, has been held at Arizona State University, where they were under contract and had to pay a hefty facility fee, Harner said.

“This is a great opportunity to showcase all that MCC has to offer its students and allow new potential students on the campus to see what it’s all about,” Fore said.

The Special Olympics will provide all of the athletic equipment they need for the event that MCC can not provide.

Logistically, Fore believes that the MCC campus is ideal for the event with the locations of the fields in relation to the parking lots and classrooms.

“It’s not as spread out as ASU is so it may make for a better game,” Fore said.

According to Harner, MCC will set up the gym and fields in order to facilitate the Special Olympics and may need to bring in a larger security force of their own in order to deal with the large number of people who will be on campus.

However, they may choose to bring in their own security personel.

Harner will be working with the department of Institutional Advancement to market the Special Olympics within the community and possibly seek volunteers and donations from the community.

This large scale effort is an attempt to put MCC on the map as a generous supporter of those with disabilities and the surrounding community.

The athletic department will be gearing up to partner with the Special Olympics to put on the event and will make adjustments as they are needed, Fore said.

A walkthrough of the fields and facilities will take place at the end of January where they will plan the usage of the MCC facilities and classrooms for the event.

  • Mesa Legend Staff

    These are archived stories from Mesa Legend editions before Fall 2018. See article for corresponding author.

Welcome to the Mesa Legend! Subscribe to know more about what goes on at Mesa Community College!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *