Winter Special Olympics

While researching for volunteer opportunities, I was so excited to come across the Special Olympics, CT site. I eagerly clicked on the "Become a Volunteer" link and saw the option to help out at Powder Ridge for the 2023 Winter Games. There were assignments for skiers and non skiers. Arlene and I decided to apply for the non skier positions. Once I hit "send" I waited patiently for my confirmation email to let me know I was accepted and to which role I was assigned. Weeks went by and I still hadn't heard back. I was beginning to get discouraged, thinking they already had enough volunteers. I called and emailed to no avail. I checked with Arlene to see if she had heard back. I mentioned my dilemma to a coworker who happened to know someone who worked for the Special Olympics. She contacted her and found out the committee was scrambling due to the rainy weather forecasted for that weekend. They had to cancel the events on Saturday and hold them all on Sunday. Sure enough, that night I received my confirmation email. Time Keeper and Recorder.

Time Keeper and Recorder?? That sounded very official and something that would take focus and concentration. I was a little nervous. After our coffee and donut at check in, we headed to our informational session. We had to run up the snowy hill as it looked like the session started and we had to make sure we heard everything. There was a lot to take in. I was handed a black stopwatch and shown the little hut where we would be working. It seemed like a lot of responsibility for us, but there was no time to dwell. We had to put up the fencing for the slalom skiing event.

Putting up fencing right before the event was stressful. We were shown the rolls of orange flexible fencing and the electric drill to make holes in the snow. Luckily for me, Arlene knows a thing or two about power tools. She drilled the holes and I unraveled and stuck the poles in. Exhausting work. Only to be told we had to move the fencing back a few times.....Now, I was exhausted but still reviewing in my head the directions for time keeping. I shouldn't have worried about that because they would change my role right before the first skier came down. I was now a gate keeper.

No sitting in a hut for me. I was to stand on the side of the mountain and tend to a gate - making sure the athletes went through the flags. I was told if they do not go through the flags, I had to raise my hand so the recorders would know they were disqualified. If they fell, they only had one minute to get up and continue with their run or they would be disqualified. Luckily I had my watch with a second hand on it. This leads me to my favorite part of the whole day - interacting with the athletes!

All of them were amazing...strong, focused, skilled...all with their own strategies to make it down the slalom run. Unfortunately, my gate had some slushy bumps, which caused many falls. The athletes knew about the one minute rule to get up by themselves. If I helped them, they would be disqualified. I always started with voicing encouragement "come on, you got this", "get up and finish strong" "you can do it". Most athletes were determined to get up by themselves and did. Some needed help getting up. I enjoyed helping them through it. Some wanted physical help and others adamantly did not. I quickly learned their habits. One skier loved to sing the whole way down. One skier enjoyed waving to each of the gate keepers on his way down. One stayed focused, knees bent, head down, all business....

It was a great day. Met some wonderful athletes and volunteers. Looking forward to volunteering for this organization again.