Coe Special Olympics Recap

From Kelsey Jipp, Coe SAAC:

"Here are some pictures from our Coe Special Olympics we held on Saturday, April 21st.  There were over 150 Special Olympics athletes and 50 student-athlete volunteers.  Volunteers served as mentors, race starters, timers and high-fivers.  The weather may not have been ideal but that did not stop us from having a great time!"

Photos from Cornell's Unified Sports Day

Cornell College hosted the Fifth Annual Special Olympics Iowa (SOIA) Unified Sports Day on March 17. Below are some great photos of the event. Cornell had 120 student volunteers partner with 150 SOIA athletes on sports teams for a day of unified activities. The group of volunteers included 49 student-athletes and four sports medicine assistants from Cornell. They engaged in 17 various activities ranging from bocce ball and bowling to floor hockey and arts and crafts. Lunch and t-shirts were provided to all participants.

Luther Celebrates National Student-Athlete Day with Youth Sports Activity

Another great video from Luther SAAC that shows its youth sports extravaganza for Decorah's budding boys' and girls' athletes!

Coe's Winter Awards Banquet Features Special Olympian

From Kelsey Jipp, Coe SAAC:

"Coe's SAAC held our 4th annual Winter Letter Awards Banquet April 27th to recognize Men's and Women's Basketball, Men's and Women's Swimming & Diving, and Wrestling athletes.  Each coach spoke about their team's season and announced their athletes by class so they could be given their IIAC conference certificates and/or varsity letters. All-Region, All-America and All-Academic recipients were also recognized. This year we had a guest speaker come in support of the NCAA's Special Olympics initiative. Traci Long is a Global Messenger for Special Olympics and graciously offered to tell her story and promote more student-athlete involvement in future Special Olympics events. She was able to encourage many athletes to sign up as volunteers at the Coe Special Olympics event, coming up April 14th. It was great having Traci and her positive energy!" (Traci [right] is pictured below with Coe women's basketball coach and senior women's administrator Randi Peterson).

Coe's "Think Pink" Event Highlights Regular-Season Finale

From Kelsey Jipp, Coe SAAC and women's basketball student-athlete:

"On Feb 18th, we had our "Think Pink" game to support and spread awareness of breast cancer. Athletes and faculty joined efforts in baking cookies for our baked goods sale, in which we raised over $200 for breast cancer research. We also had a pink costume contest for students. Here are a couple pics of our student section!"

Wartburg's Unified Sports Day A Big Success

The Wartburg College Athletic Department hosted its 14th annual Unified Sports Day, this past Saturday.

This event brings special needs individuals to campus for a day of fun and games with numerous Wartburg students.

To view the full photo gallery, click here.

To read the story in the Waterloo Courier, click here.

BV Basketball Event Raises Money for Cancer Research

This from BV Senior Women's Administrator Jennifer Thompson:

"We hosted our PINK Breast Cancer Event last Saturday evening at BVU and the SAAC students help me with this event.  I have attached some pictures of the activities at our event. We raised just over $2,000 for the WBCA Kay Yow Cancer Fund! Activities included:  a raffle of seven items, sales of snack mix, pink t-shirts, pink headbands and pink ribbon Tervis Tumblers, a silent auction of about 30 items, a best pink costume contest for BVU students (with prizes) and the BVU Dance Squad performed at both halftimes. Fans were all encouraged to wear pink to the game.  The women's team wore pink warm-up shirts and pink shoe laces, and the officials used their pink whistles."