As this year comes to a close, we wanted to take a moment to extend our gratitude to the extraordinary people of Special Olympics while celebrating the change and hope you bring to the world every day. You are amazing visionaries and leaders, and we are lucky to work with and among you for the noble goals that inspire us all.

 

The accomplishments of 2009, and the months and years of work that preceded them, have created nothing short of the most powerful movement of sport, inclusion, acceptance and dignity that the world has ever seen. Numbers can never convey the power of relationships, the experience of pride, the joy of winning, or the remarkable birth of hope and tolerance. But the numbers that describe our movement are nonetheless staggering.

 

Consider that 2009 saw more activity and growth on a global scale than any other year in our history.  We welcomed more athletes to our movement than ever before – over 3.2 million worldwide. We hosted more competitions than ever before – over 33,000. We opened the doors to younger athletes than ever before – inviting children and their families to grow and benefit from the power of Special Olympics beginning at age 2. And to bring all this to life, we marshaled a citizen army of millions of volunteers who competed, coached, donated and cheered the power of the human spirit in 170 countries.

 

Amazing! And through it all, sport remains the core of who we are and what we do. Our deepest commitment is to show the world the power of real athletes – who train with determination, compete to the best of their ability, achieve the extraordinary and exemplify courage at every turn. In 2009, the athletes of Special Olympics showed themselves again to be the best in sports.

 

But that was only the beginning. If our mission has always challenged us to share the gifts of our athletes with the world, 2009 may well have been the year in which that sharing reached critical mass. Whole communities came to embrace the challenge of making our movement not just about the athletes, but about all of us. Around the world, we saw the continued growth of our Healthy Athletes program as record numbers of health care providers conducted free health screenings for more than 185,000 athletes in seven disciplines – including the one-millionth athlete over the history of this initiative. We saw hundreds of thousands of young people launch a campaign to change the conversation about intellectual disability in schools and in society. We saw stars of sport, screen, and music join our athletes to usher in a new era of urgency in fighting intolerance using the web, the airwaves and the big stage. Through it all, we saw our athletes lead as thousands joined our Athlete Leadership Programs, speaking for themselves and making Special Olympics into a powerhouse of empowerment and self advocacy. 

 

Again, amazing! Together, these efforts have become the building blocks of real communities – communities where everyone’s gifts are celebrated and welcomed. It is not too much to say that the people of Special Olympics are the builders of community, not just once a week or once a year, but every day. Together, you are a movement of ideals and conviction. And you are unstoppable.

 

A skeptic might ask for results. We know about the stories of hope and passion that our athletes and volunteers have told for a generation but that’s not enough. So happily, those stories are now matched by data – rigorous research that begins to explain real change.

 

We know from public attitude surveys that we have conducted over several years that attitudes toward people with intellectual disabilities throughout the world are astoundingly negative. In fact, we know that in some countries, up to 47 percent of people have never had contact with our population. Through our World Games, Unified Sports and other inclusive activities, we are increasing public understanding and acceptance. Through our Project UNIFY initiative, we were able to provide opportunities for nearly 600,000 students to learn about and advocate for their peers with intellectual disabilities. Through our Global Football Initiative and strategic partnerships with football federations and clubs around the world, we are capitalizing on the sport’s massive popularity around the world to recruit new athletes and reach new audiences.  

 

We know from our research that 52 percent of Special Olympics athletes in the U.S. are employed whereas the estimate for the general population of people with intellectual disabilities is as low as 10 percent. We know that 33 percent of the athletes we screen through our Opening Eyes Program have never had an eye exam. We corrected that and their vision with free glasses and sports goggles.

 

One might wonder how all this has come to pass. With small budgets, a marginalized population with limited political influence, and few precedents for how to organize our vision, how have so many responded with such energy and excellence?

 

None of us will ever be able to capture the full story of how Special Olympics has become what it is today. But we do well to remember the principles by which we operate and the teamwork that has been our standard. Remember that 10 years ago we accepted together the challenge of trying to double in size from just over 900,000 athletes. Remember that we decided together to explore the possibilities of integrating health into our sports model. Remember that we worked together to create a culture of athlete leadership. None of these challenges were assured of any outcome. Many mistakes were sure to be made along the way. No roadmap existed for making it happen in a wildly diverse and global not-for-profit.

 

But what we may have lacked in elaborate strategy, we made up for in vision and teamwork. Together, we brought our movement to places where many believed the barriers were too high: massive countries like China, Brazil, and India; challenging environments like Pakistan, Afghanistan and Russia; poor nations like Kenya, Mauritania, Myanmar and El Salvador; tough U.S. communities in big cities and among the rural poor. And what is most striking is not the number of athletes involved or even where our expansion has taken place, but the galvanizing power of teamwork that has accompanied and sustained it.

 

This sense of teamwork is our biggest cause for celebration. Team is built into the very fabric of our movement. Local programs play their part by focusing on the athletes and their goals; states, provinces and counties play their part by providing training and visibility; Accredited Programs around the world play their part by owning the challenges of sustainability, strategic execution and quality. In support of all of them, we at Special Olympics – through our board, our staff and our regional leaders – aim to champion the vision, set the strategy, share the best knowledge and create a coherent picture of the future. When that whole system around the world works together, we get the results that we see today all around the world. And imagine what might happen if we can do all that even better in the years ahead!

 

This is the business model of Special Olympics: be on the team, embrace the vision, set the strategy, and empower leaders and local “founders” the world over to be creative and innovative agents of change with the athletes and their communities. In the past, we may not have always understood how this whole wonderful movement works, but in retrospect, we can appreciate it for the team that it is. To everyone on the team who has played any role whatsoever, the achievements of Special Olympics are yours. Celebrate!

 

As we enter a new decade, we can be sure that we will be tested anew. In the months and years ahead, the challenges of fundraising will be brutal, the pace of change in communications will be at light speed and the pressure to leave the most vulnerable behind will be intense. As a global movement of millions, keeping focused, motivated and together will be more difficult than ever. We are sure to face the age old enemies of indifference and exclusion as other issues of the day fight for public attention.

 

But make no mistake: we are ready! Ready to keep the vision strong, ready to build a team aligned from one corner of the globe to another, ready to follow the enormous inspiration that our athletes provide. Our resources remain far too small for the task at hand, but we have the will and resolve to redouble our efforts to open hearts the world over to the urgency of our times. This is our moment – a moment when the world hungers to have its spirit renewed by joy, rededicated to the power of diversity, refreshed by health and community. This is the moment for Special Olympics to echo the words of the poet Maya Angelou and “rise, rise, rise!”

 

Looking ahead, we hope that the words of Eunice Kennedy Shriver will echo in the hearts and minds of Special Olympics athletes, families and volunteers the world over. Just one year ago, she put our movement and this moment in the light of history and possibility: 

 

 

 

 

With thanks to her indomitable spirit, we join in thanking you for the inspiration you provide and we ask you to continue to share every day in the glory of Special Olympics.