Girard to host Special Olympics

By LINDA M. LINONIS

linonis@vindy.com

GIRARD

Assisting developmentally challenged participants in the 2010 Special Olympics was a rewarding experience for student volunteers from Girard High School.

Judy Barber, a teacher in the high school’s English Department and event volunteer, also noted many of the same students planned to assist this year. Between 150 and 200 students, staff and community volunteers will lend hands and hearts.

Registration for the Special Olympics will be at 8:30 a.m. Saturday then an opening ceremony at 9:45 a.m. in Arrowhead Stadium on South Highland. Track and field events will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and include activities such as the 50- to 1,500-meter race and walk, relay, wheelchair races, shot put and long jump.

Barber said about 250 students who are physically or mentally challenged or both will participate. They will come from Mahoning, Trumbull, Columbiana, Ashtabula, Portage and Geauga counties and represent eight school districts.

The event is being coordinated by Girard school district, Fairhaven School, operated by Trumbull County Board of Developmental Disabilities, and Girard-Liberty Rotary Club.

Awards will be presented to winners throughout the day.

Barber said sponsors still are needed to help fund the event. To donate, call Randy Suchanek, Rotary Special Olympics chairman, at 330-402-1173.

“Last year was the first time for Special Olympics in Trumbull County so being a Trumbull County club, we wanted to help make it happen,” Suchanek said.

Suchanek said it rained on the event last year but the smiles of participants still shone. Saturday’s forecast calls for 75 degrees and isolated thunder storms.

Superintendent Joe Jeswald said he was closely involved in special education and he and the board of education were very happy to have Girard host the Special Olympics.