We spent our Saturday at the Special Olympics in Waynesville, Missouri. It was amazing to see a small segment of the world's largest sports organization operate. The Special Olympics has over 4.5 MILLION athletes worldwide in 170 countries, and there are 16,500 athletes in Missouri alone. In the morning there were team skills competitions and we had a great time cheering on the athletes and handing out awards. We made some great friends including a boy named Trevor who danced with our entire group to "Let It Go" and made people show him their whip and nae nae skills (but obviously he was the best at it).
In the afternoon we helped adjudicate and operate an individual skills competition. There were dribbling, passing and shooting skills practices and all of the athletes were amazing. It was so incredible to see how happy we could make people just by giving them high fives and cheering them on.
Saturday evening we practiced our "Be Gumby" skills and instead of having a cute picnic Bennett Springs Park, we played some sportsball in the church gym and had the most adorable easter egg hunt. Our teams tied and miraculously no one was injured considering how many times we were diving to get an egg before the other team. After that we gorged ourselves on snack foods and watched a movie in the youth center of our housing - the First United Methodist Church of Lebanon (p.s. they were amazing and opened the entire church to us and there was SO MUCH ROOM FOR ACTIVITIES).
On Sunday we served at COPE, a domestic violence shelter in Lebanon. The executive director was the coolest person we have ever met (she casually told us that she went to the UN last week and she's been basically all over the world). We helped out by cleaning up the yard, cleaning the bathrooms and kitchens and retouching paint. We packed lunches but the executive director Judy bought us pizza and when we told her we had lunch she goes, "But do you have to eat them now?" so at least now we have dinner!
After our service we headed to our site leader Jessica's cousin's place where we got to play with goats and also kayak (regardless of the 40 degree weather). She fed us (second lunch is the most important meal of the day), and they were so welcoming. Everyone we have met has been so incredibly nice.
We are so glad that we got to participate in an MAB partnership trip. STRIPES volunteers are always family, but it was such a neat opportunity to spend time with each other in a new capacity. We are so excited to return to Columbia to tell our friends about our adventures and to spread the MAB love.
- Pulaski county/STRIPES
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