By Dallas Fox

Involvement across the community is of high value here at Greensboro College. We strive to make everyone in the community feel welcome no matter who you are. At GC, we have various opportunities for people to strive towards this goal, especially our student athletes. This is through our Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) where we strive to increase student
athlete happiness and involvement to further us as people. Our partnership with Guilford County Special Olympics is going on four years strong, and we can not wait to have many more.

SAAC loves community engagement and one of the most joy filled and loving is our Special Olympics events. These events span from 16 different sports both carried out in either Reynolds or on Pride Field. SAAC gets together with the Guilford County Special Olympics (GCSO) and gives the opportunity to individuals with intellectual disabilities to train, compete and most importantly have fun with our student athletes. This is also very important to our athletes, averaging around 30 GC student athletes per event, giving us the opportunity to learn and give back.

The most recent of these events was held on September 20 at 3 p.m. where we invited the GCSO to play basketball in Reynolds. We practiced drills of passing and shooting for most of the time. After every one warmed up, we played a couple games and it was fulfilling to see smiles running
around the court and hearing the tune of excitement from all. At the end, we all lined up and each Olympic athlete took one last shot as we all cheered them on with each make. We were all truly grateful for the opportunity to bring happiness to the athletes.

After the event was over, I spoke with Bethany McQuinn who is a senior student athlete and SAAC representative for our school. Bethany was also the head coordinator for all our drills and games for the event.

“I love making the connections between Special Olympics athletes and our students and it also provides a great break for our student athletes from their hard work in their sport,” she said when asked why she is always so eager with this event.

This speaks to the level of impact that this event has on both Special Olympics athletes and our student athletes at GC. Being able to create an atmosphere of acceptance and fun is a top priority during these events, and I am glad to say we succeeded.

We have three more of these events with volleyball being the next sport. We are very excited for all of the athletes to come back. The joy of playing the sport is important but the connections, smiles and memories we make are what we chase.