On July 7, 2006 80 Special Olympics athletes from 20 special education schools in Beijing participated in the first ever Boeing Cup Bocce Tournament at the Special Education College of Beijing Union University, thanks to the generous donation from the Boeing Company.

Boeing staff compete on the same team as Special Olympics athletes in
several Unified Sports teams

The tournament consisted of 4 groups of 5 teams each for a total 20 teams, with 4 athletes from each special education school. Boeing staff also joined some teams to create Unified Sports teams. Unified Sports partners are individuals without intellectual disabilities that play together with Special Olympics athletes.

In addition to Boeing's Beijing staff who participated in the competition, Mr Yan-Pui Tsin, Managing Director for Special Olympics East Asia; Qu Xueli, Party Secretary of Special Education Institute in Beijing Union University; and Kenneth Yata, Vice-President of Business Development of Boeing China, were all present to celebrate Boeing's donation and the first ever Boeing Cup Bocce Tournament.

Boeing China's VP of Business Development, Kenneth Yata watches
intently with a Special Olympics athlete

Kenneth Yata from Boeing China commented, "We are very glad to sponsor today's event. Boeing's global charitable investment strategy is not based on or driven by business need. Rather, the goal is to improve quality of life in communities where we have a presence, in keeping with the company's core value of Good Corporate Citizenship. We hope to encourage more people to devote to the welfare and development of the intellectually-disabled group and to promote the well-being of the whole society."

Apart from sponsoring the tournament, Boeing also supported building new portable bocce lanes, purchasing new sets of bocce balls and providing bocce rules training session for 20 coaches and teachers from the 20 special education schools in Beijing.

Special Olympics East Asia Managing Director Yan-Pui Tsin, Boeing
China's VP of Business Development Kenneth Yata and the Pinggu
Special Educaton School team

Special Olympics thanks Boeing for their generous donation which enables the Special Olympics athletes in Beijing to practice and improve their bocce skills for future Special Olympics local, national, regional and world competitions. Special Olympics China will hold its 4 th Special Olympics China National Games in Harbin during July 29 - August 4, 2005. The 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games will take place in Shanghai, China during October 2 - 11, 2007.