Today in Henrico – Rick Jeffrey, Special Olympics of Virginia

A conversation with Rick Jeffrey, the president of Special Olympics of Virginia, about the organization and how its athletes are handling the COVID-19 pandemic – and when they'll return to action.     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

(The transcription below is provided through an automated service and may contain some errors or omissions.)

Tara Gray – I'm Tara Gray, and today in Henrico, I'm joined by Rick Jeffrey, president of the Special Olympics. Welcome, Rick, how are you?

Rick Jeffrey – I'm fine. Good morning, Tara. I hope you're well. And I hope all of your listeners out there are well in this unusual time that we're all living in.

Tara Gray – Let's start off by sharing some history about the Special Olympics. I think the history is that it's important to share. And if you'd like to just start with that.

Rick Jeffrey – Sure, Special Olympics was created in 1968 by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, that is the sister of John F. Kennedy. They had a sister, Rose, who had intellectual disabilities, and was marginalized and discriminated against throughout her life, even though she's part of the Kennedy family. And they just thought that people with intellectual disabilities needed an opportunity to show what they could do – not be constantly shut away for what they couldn't do.

And so they created Special Olympics. It was created in Chicago in 1968, with an event basically – not really programs in various states but an event only inviting people with intellectual disabilities from across the country. We had athletes from Virginia that attended there. And that was at Soldier Field, and it was track and field and they actually built a swimming pool at Soldier Field they had swimming and they had a number of other events. And out of that grew programs in every state our program in Virginia was incorporated in 1975. Although we have had activity in this state, probably loosely since 1968, incorporated in ’75. We're now in every state. There are 52 US programs because Northern and Southern California are split into two because of the size there's a small program in the District of Columbia. We're now also in 170 countries globally. It is a global program with 4 million Special Olympic athletes.

Over 1 million of those are here in the US. And we have over 25,000 of those, probably really over 26,000 of those here in the state of Virginia competing in 33 local and community programs across the state, which are organized much in the way that Little Leagues and youth soccer organized volunteer councils and volunteer organizations throughout the state, community volunteers moms and pops.

And then we also have school programs, which are part of our local program system. And we are one of the leaders in the country in school expansion. We are in 519 schools in the state of Virginia. That sounds like a lot, but there are 2,000 public schools in the state of Virginia. So even though we're really making progress, we have a long way to go and a number of those are right here in Henrico County, involved in our program, and so that kind of gives you a synopsis of it.

We are into sport and health and fitness. We want our athletes to be healthier and fitter with a chance to get better. And when that is on and off the playing field. We're really working hard on educational programs, working hard on our community partnerships, and working hard to make sure we have leadership at every aspect of this organization, whether it be our athletes, or their family members, or volunteers or our staff and our board. So with that being said, our vision is an inclusive world for all created by the power of sport, with three core values, respect, inclusion and unity. And if, if we could if everyone could live by those values, we would all be working together in Special Olympics to create a model for the way the world should be one that's rich and understanding and joy. One that shows no judgment. One that respects all.

Tara Gray – Oh, that's nice. That's so true. I love that. Obviously, sports is the foundation for the nonprofit, the USA and World Games. Did you want to share a little bit about that?

Rick Jeffrey – Well, yes, every four years there is there a World Games. Actually there's a World Games every two years. So it follows the Olympic model. So every four years, there is a world Summer Games. We just had real Summer Games in 2019. It was in the Middle East. It was in the United Arab Emirates in Abu Dhabi. We had seven great athletes that went from Virginia as part of the 300 that made up the specific USA team. We refer to them as The Magnificent Seven. They were wonderful athletes, we had two of those athletes who are really amongst the top athletes in the world. And we then every four years, there's also a winter event, Winter World Games, there'll be a Winter World Games coming up in 2021.

I think that we'll probably be pushed back maybe to the end of 2021, or the beginning of 2022 because of the pandemic. So every two years you have a global event, either a summer or a winter in four year intervals. Then with regard to the US, the US has a USA games every four years. In 2018, we had a wonderful event in Seattle in the Pacific Northwest, we had 48 athletes on a number of different teams and sports that were out in Seattle. And again, we had some of the we had some, we had athletes at all levels of ability, because our athletes there compete at their own level of ability. But we had some wonderful athletes at all have the ability levels and some wonderful stories. And we're gearing up in a couple of years, probably two years from right now. We'll be hopefully in Orlando in 2022 for the USA games in Orlando, with our friends at Disney and ESPN, so we're looking forward to that.

Tara Gray – That's great. I was looking on the Events tab, and so far from what I can tell the calendar for June, it has some events scheduled Is this correct? I was going to ask if COVID has affected the events for the summer.

Rick Jeffrey – You know, we, we had a wonderful year in 2019, but programmatically in every aspect of our program. We had a great first nine weeks of 2020. We have some great fundraising events have a kind of a special epic brand, that event called the Polar Plunge. We have a large one at Virginia Beach and we have ones around the state reasonably so that schools and local programs can participate. But we did wonderful revenue generation for that first nine weeks we had a great winter season with speedskating, we had a great midwinter season with our basketball program. We got our basketball championships in, which was 80 teams from all over the state up in Fredericksburg the very first weekend of March.

And then pretty much after that we've been shut down. Our community based programs were shut down the second week of March and then the school programs all followed the protocols of the school divisions and they were shut down really about the third week of March. So we have all programming activity suspended through June 30. That will begin to lead up and as you begin to reopen in July and August, but we're looking really, most of July is really for specific Virginia, a little bit of a dead month. We have our spring season and our Summer Games, none of which occurred. Our Summer Games at the University of Richmond is a huge event for the Richmond region with 1,500 athletes, 2,000 family members, and probably about 7,000 volunteers from around the Richmond region that all are gathered on a campus at the University of Richmond and surrounding venues in the Richmond area. None of that occurred. And so we're looking to, to basically get our fall seasons hopefully started in a socially distance fashion and then maybe get back to some kind of normalcy late in the fall. If we can't do that we'll do as much virtual as we can.

And we certainly hope we can get back to some kind of normalcy in 2021. But as you know, there are so many unknowns with COVID-19. And the Special Olympics athletes, not all of them, but especially athletes in the general sense are very marginalized in every aspect of their life. And one of those is basically their health, and a lot of underlying health problems with people with intellectual disabilities, especially with regard to respiratory problems, asthma, and obesity adds to that. And so they are in a high risk category. So as things reopen, and as youth soccer is returned, which is starting now in this area, and there's things like you sports and little leagues, go back and return and maybe school sports return, so Special Olympics, programs will get back on the playing field and we will return to play. But we're probably at the trailing edge of that return-to-play scenario.

Tara Gray – Okay, the website, if you would like to mention the website, it has a lot of great information on it.

Rick Jeffrey – Yeah, the website is specialolympicsva.org. You can just google Special Olympics Va. Or you can google Special Olympics va.org and you'll get the homepage on the website. It's a great website. It will tell you who we are, what we do what we have going on. It will have schedules on that, but remember, we're not going to ramp back up probably until it's no earlier than August because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also has how you can get involved. If you're anywhere in the state or if you're right here in Henrico County, it tells you how to get involved with the great Henrico County program, which is headed up by a great community volunteer. That is area 31. That's the team name here in Special Olympics.

And you can find all that on the website. And if you're looking now you can find us on Twitter, you can find us on Instagram, you can find us on Facebook. In fact, since we have shut down in March, we have developed really what we consider to be one of the best Special Olympics Facebook virtual fitness programs in the country. You can go on Facebook, you can find us under Special Olympics Virginia Virtual Fitness. You will see thousands of athletes that are on there that are following, that are working out daily. We do daily workout and weekly workout programs. We do nutrition, we do hydration, we do mindfulness. We have things on there every day of the week for our athletes to get on and follow, and we have a number of athletes who are going on there and posting their workout routines, posting their workouts for the day. We are working on how to make this as we come back to normal, we are working on how to make this a staple and permanent part of our program so that athletes can not only have their sport, or maybe their two sports that they're participating in once or twice a week, but they have an opportunity to the workout three to five times a week. So check that out on Facebook, Special Olympics, Virginia, Virtual Fitness. You can actually join in, become a Facebook member and work out yourself, because we think everybody needs to do that. You know, the statistics in the general public are not much better. But people with intellectual disabilities are two times more likely to be obese, two times more likely to have heart disease or asthma, five times more likely to to be affected by disabilities, and they die 16 years earlier on average than their non disabled counterparts.

Now those statistics are stark, Tara. And we want your your folks to think about that. You can see all of that on the website as well. But this virtual fitness and opportunities for athletes not only to participate in their sports, but become healthier and fitter by working out three times or more per week is going to be a staple and new part and permanent part of our program. And we would urge everybody in the general public to do as well so that are special athletes, who knew social distance and isolation and fear way longer before any of the rest of us knew that, because that's how they live their lives. And now, all of your folks can become . . . more Special Olympics fit just like our athletes are. And all of us are experiencing that social distance in isolation and fear right now. And you have a little bit of a glimpse of how Special Olympic athletes live their lives. So think about that. And when we get out, we get out of this pandemic, do two things, make make it kind of something that you do to include somebody with an intellectual disability in your life. And also, let's all work together so that when social distance is no longer a thing, we can all work together to make it no longer a thing.

Tara Gray – Right. That's such a great way to put that I encourage listeners to please go on to the website and the tab Ways to Give. There are so many different ways that you can contribute and make a difference. And it's a great, what a great nonprofit. I'm so happy to speak with you today. Rick, Special Olympics Virginia. There are a lot of offices in Virginia. So if anybody has any questions as far as where they would be, the website is the best way. So thank you so much.

Rick Jeffrey – Thank you, Tara. And thank you to all of your folks out there in Henrico County that listen to Henrico Citizen. It's a great place, a great amount of activity both in the local community and the schools in Henrico County, so please go out and get involved. It will be the most fun you have all year.

Tara Gray – Thank you so much. Hope you have a great day. Thank you Tara

Rick Jeffrey – Thanks you, Tara.