Students lend a hand to Special Olympics Idaho

Boise State Students Erin Aldinger, Cristi Garcia, Kelly Brown and Francis Corkill helped build awareness and involvement with Special Olympics Idaho on April 23. They set up a booth on the quad, which focused on getting information out about Special Olympics Idaho as well as finding people to volunteer. There they also promoted the “Be a Fan” campaign for the April 26 Basketball and Volleyball invitational.

“The Idaho Special Olympics is a wonderful organization and everyone who participates benefits whether you’re a fan, a volunteer or an athlete,” Brown said.

To promote their campaign Aldinger, Garcia, Brown and Corkill created flyers and posters to hand out and post on campus, created a Facebook page for Special Olympics Idaho, sent press releases to local news outlets, created a “Be a Fan” video for Special Olympics Idaho and found two Special Olympians from Boise State to participate in the basketball and volleyball invitational. The goal was to promote Special Olympics Idaho to the students of Boise State as well as the Boise community.

This was all part of their Communications 478 course – “Public Relations Techniques,” taught by Joanne Taylor. They chose Special Olympics Idaho over the World Games because they felt Special Olympics Idaho needed more emphasis and attention. The course has given them a great opportunity to work with a great organization.

“By working with Special Olympics Idaho we’re trying to get a younger audience involved and to let them know how they can get involved by either volunteering or attending the events and being a fan,” Aldinger said.

The Special Olympics is an international organization that was established in 1968. The purpose is to help individuals with disabilities become physically fit, productive and respected members of society through sports training and competition.

Special Olympics Idaho provides year-round training and competition to athletes with disabilities ages 8 and up; this is provided free of charge and there are more than 1,800 children and adults with disabilities who participate in the state of Idaho.

Special Olympics Idaho helps change the lives of the athletes by helping them develop improved physical fitness and motor skills and promotes greater self-confidence in the athletes.

The Special Olympics “Be a Fan” campaign was implemented to help build values and attributes including acceptance, courage, strength and unity.

By being a fan of the Special Olympics people understand that everyone can have positive attributes including dignity, joy, respect and determination. To help Special Olympics Idaho, visit IDSO.org.

MAT LA RUE
Lead Culture Writer

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