Spring 2023 E-newsletter

After a whirlwind of occasions over the previous couple months, we thought it could be a good time to catch you up on all issues Particular Olympics Vermont (at the least our main happenings)!

From late October by way of January, regional bowling occasions have been held at Rutland Bowlerama and Spare Time Colchester. The southern bowling league that performed in Rutland was composed of groups from Rutland Intermediate Center Faculty, Rutland Excessive Faculty, and Mill River Union Excessive Faculty. The northern league had groups from South Burlington Colleges, Edmunds Center Faculty, Essex Center Faculty, Essex Excessive Faculty, and Mount Mansfield Union Excessive Faculty.

Along with the Unified Champion Colleges bowling leagues, Bellcate Faculty, CVU, Shelburne Group Faculty, U32, and Montpelier Excessive Faculty participated in scrimmages all through the season.

This 12 months, we partnered with the Edge in South Burlington to host our swimming competitors. About 30 athletes from Addison, Chittenden, Franklin County Maple Leafs, and Bellcate Faculty competed in several mixtures of 25m, 50m, and 100m freestyle, butterfly, backstroke and breaststroke occasions. We noticed some nice end instances and everybody did an unimaginable job!

Lastly, we had floorball video games at Collins Perley Sports activities and Health Middle. Chittenden and Franklin County with 2 groups every competed towards one another for first by way of fourth place awards.

These occasions wouldn’t have been doable with out the coordination and assist of native HODs, UCS liaisons, and our host venues. Thanks!

Vertical Problem at Saskadena Six

Particular Olympics Vermont athletes have been invited to take part within the Vertical Problem at Saskadena Six. On March fifth athletes, coaches, mother and father, and volunteers from Addison and Mount Snow Adaptive joined us for a gorgeous day on the mountain! 13 athletes competed on the novice course arrange completely for Particular Olympics Vermont, whereas 23 skiers and snowboarders competed on the Vertical Problem course. We would prefer to thank all our companions at Saskadena Six and Vertical Problem for internet hosting us at this enjoyable occasion, and our volunteers, HODs, and coaches that helped make this occasion profitable!

Snowshoeing and Cross-country Snowboarding

We hosted our cross-country snowboarding and snowshoe competitions at Rikert Nordic Middle this 12 months the place 27 athletes competed in snowshoe races, whereas 10 skiers raced in numerous distance occasions.

Members of regulation enforcement have been capable of be a part of us and draped medals at award ceremonies, and cheered athletes on of their competitions. We additionally had members from the Middlebury Faculty Unified Membership volunteer and help us all through the day.

Congratulations to all athletes and coaches from Addison, Bennington, and Chittenden. We’d prefer to thank our delegations and companions at Rikert for being versatile after having to cancel our authentic date because of unsafe driving situations, in addition to all our volunteers, HODs, and companions that made this a profitable and fun-filled occasion!

We hosted a center faculty leisure basketball event for the primary time at Albert D. Lawton Faculty (ADL) in Essex. This was a good way for center stage college students to be launched to Unified Basketball which is extra frequent at the highschool stage. One Bellcate crew, two ADL groups, and two Edmunds Center Faculty groups performed a round-robin format and have been awarded with participation medals on the finish of the day. Stands have been crammed with supporters of every faculty cheering for his or her groups. We would like to provide a shoutout UCS liaison Catherine Parlante and the workers at ADL who have been an unimaginable assist in organizing this occasion!

Our largest and most anticipated fundraiser of the 12 months went distant because of frigid temperatures anticipated on the day of the occasion. Fundraisers have been inspired to point out their assist for SOVT by recording or taking images of their inventive alternate options to the same old in-person plunge into Lake Champlain. Regardless of having gone distant, plungers continued to fundraise, and we even exceeded our fundraising objective for the Cool Colleges Penguin Plunge by $20,000! The VIP Occasion on the eve of the Plunge befell at Lodge Vermont for the primary time. Sponsors, prime fundraisers, SOVT board, workers and members of the neighborhood loved reside music, meals, and drinks in celebration of the Plunge. We capped off the 2023 Penguin Plunge with a Premiere Occasion held at Foam Brewers on March twenty first to observe the manufacturing of distant plunges put collectively by our associates at Media Manufacturing unit.

On March eleventh, we headed all the way down to Manchester for the Southern Vermont Penguin Plunge. About 100 neighborhood members from Manchester and neighboring cities raised over $17,000 for Particular Olympics Vermont. The Manchester Fireplace Division sprayed water from certainly one of their tower vehicles for plungers to run by way of. It was a energetic occasion regardless of the gloomy climate, with music from Burr and Burton pupil DJs, and scorching espresso and freshly made pizza by Sam’s Wooden Fired Pizza Co.

Altogether, the 2023 Penguin Plunge raised over $525,000 for Particular Olympics Vermont. This is able to not have been doable with out the assist of our many sponsors, companions, and over 1,000 devoted plungers!

SOVT workers member and athlete chief Bennett Townley has been representing athletes and Particular Olympics Vermont at native occasions and at a nationwide stage. Early this 12 months, Bennett was a part of the Vermont delegation to move to Washington DC for Capitol Hill Day to foyer for funding for Particular Olympics. Bennett offered to Senator Peter Welch in addition to staffers of members of congress, sharing how his involvement in Particular Olympics Vermont programming has impacted his life.

Extra just lately, Bennett was the keynote speaker on the Vermont Affiliation for Center Degree Training (VAMLE) Convention which befell at Champlain Faculty. Lots of of center faculty college students and educators from throughout Vermont attended this convention aimed in the direction of decreasing bullying. Bennett spoke about his expertise as a pupil earlier than and after his highschool adopted Unified Sports activities. Lecturers and college students gave nice suggestions on his speech and Bennett mentioned, “this felt like a very good alternative to show younger individuals about Particular Olympics and people with distinctive talents.”

On March sixth, athletes and their households, volunteers, sponsors, donors, plungers, and plenty of different members of the SOVT neighborhood joined us at Palace 9 Cinemas for an early screening of the film Champions. Vermont resident and co-star Casey Metcalfe helped kick off the film by sharing his appearing journey with us and the way he landed his function in Champions. Turnout was unimaginable and it was wonderful to see so many individuals with the identical look after our mission come collectively to observe a movie that represents Particular Olympics athletes.

• Norwich Basketball Event, April sixteenth, Norwich College
  

• UCS Bocce Event, Might tenth, Brattleboro Union Excessive Faculty