Service Experience #2

Special Olympics- Bocce Ball

Barrington

April 14, 3:30- 4:00 (Training) and April 17, 7:30 - 3:30

Before going to the Special Olympics I felt super excited. I have always wanted to volunteer for it before so I was glad to have the opportunity with the class. My expectations for the Special Olympics were different then what actually happened. I didn’t think that you had 9 games to play; I thought you only had like 3. I was a little nervous if something were to go wrong like fighting between players or maybe I forgot a rule that I would have gotten in trouble for. I had never been to that Carriage Park before so I was very excited. The open field that we were on was amazing. The worst part was the weather and how muddy the grass was. Hey, it could have been worse. The people who played at our station were the nicest people. They were having fun and were enjoying the game. The beginning of the day was rocky. The only problem we came into an encounter with was when some bad sportsmanship happened, when a team lost they wouldn’t shake the other team’s hand which surprised me. Otherwise the rest of the day was a breeze. My job was to keep time, take measurements at some times and hold the flags if they couldn’t hear me say who was up to throw, all in all I found so much fun. I really enjoyed talking to the players when we had a little downtime. I found out that it was one of the boys we had, Jacob, was his first time at the Olympics. It was the coolest thing. He had his family come and support him and they were cheering him on through the whole game. He lost his first game, but won in a landslide his second and his family was going crazy. It was like he won the whole entire tournament, it was honestly the best part of my day, just to see the smile on their faces both the players and the families. Also another interesting part of my day was when we had 2 blind competitors and instead of holding up the yellow flag for the palina I got to clap where the ball was so they could try to throw it better than before. After our games ended, we got help to put the court away. While on the way home I kept thinking how good it felt to help out. The appreciation of the players and the helpers should make anyone feel proud, I know I did. I can’t wait for the next one!