Showcase

I would love for everyone in the school and the community to understand the other people in the community that have and intellectual or developmental disability. I think having a play or something that would let people with disabilities showcase their talents would help them become more accepted and appreciated.

There are some plays that star only people who have some sort of disability. I think this is great. The only ones I have known of star only adults though. I want to change that. I want to have a play in the Cedar Rapids community that would star kids, and teenagers. I think this would help with the community accepting the people who have disabilities more. It would also give them an opportunity to show off some of their talent. It might help us find someone with talent that could end up being another big time actor, like Lauren Potter, or Jim Parsons.

If those actors were not given a chance to show off their talent, they would have never developed it and pursued their dreams. I think it is so great we have those two actors breaking stereotypes for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. If someone had not given them a chance, they might have never been discovered and two very popular TV shows might not be on, or as good. I think everyone around here know who Sheldon Cooper from the Big Bang Theory is. Most people, however, do not know that he has Asperger’s. I do not think people will ever look at him differently because of it, because of what a huge star he is now, but before then I think everyone would have.

Some other way to let someone with a disability showcase their talent is with letting them have a talent show and inviting the whole community. I think this would benefit everyone. It could raise money for those who create it, by charging admission. Having a talent show can also showcase the talents of the people with disabilities. This can help also help the people in community, by providing entertainment, and showing them you do not have to be disability free to have a talent.

Having a local sports team for people with disabilities can also help showcase their talent. If everyone with a disability had something they could do and wanted to do, it would create a much better community for them to live in. I think that more people would go to see this if it was a sports team for the city. I think if more cities did this people could go watch them and enjoy it. I think everyone deserves a chance to show off their talent.

BB Activities

There are a lot of different Best Buddies activities you can do in the spring. There are different things for holidays that are coming up and just activities in general. This will hopefully give you some ideas on what to do for some Best Buddies spring activities. By the end of the year it can be challenging to come up with more activities.

You can do something for Easter. There can be an Easter party, similar to a Christmas party. You can have all sorts of activities for this. They can range from dying Easter eggs to making drawings. For dying Easter eggs you need to make sure there is something covering tables to ensure there will be less of a mess. Another Easter activity is an egg scavenger hunt. This can be done indoors, or outside. It is always fun and people love getting candy.

Dying t-shirts is also something fun to do in the spring time, when it is nice out. You always need a backup plan in case it rains. For the backup plan you need table covers and gloves. Tie dying is always messy. To me it seems like you almost always get dye on everything, no matter how much you try not to. Every year when we do this inside we get dye all over the tables. It is always nice to have something that can take off the dye that has dried. I feel like it is inevitable, something will get covered in dye or stained by it. You can reuse the bottles you use to tie dye the shirts. Just make sure they are cleaned completely.

Another idea is having talent show. I like to have this at the end of the year in the spring, because people know their buddies better than they did at the beginning of the year. I think they could either help their buddy or preform with them. It would provide bonding time and make the talent show a success. I really hope ours goes well this year. I want every buddy pair to be successful, and have a great time preforming. I would also like the whole school here to see it. I want everyone to get applause and feel extremely special. Student without disabilities have more opportunities to show off talents, but this would be their one special night where they get to show everyone how talented they are, and what they can do.

State vs State

State for People not in Special Olympics is celebrated a lot. It is a major victory for the whole school. People get all excited, miss school to see it, and have a huge party or send off. I do not see why it is not the same for the students who make it to state in the Special Olympics.

If you make it to Sate in Special Olympics it is just as big of a deal. It takes a lot of hard work on the student’s part and is not easy to do. They, like the people not in Special Olympics, should get praise for all of their hard work. It takes a lot of work to be a qualifier for the State Special Olympics. It is a huge deal and I wish more people would realize it.

I wish there would be more attendance at the Special Olympics games. The students work really hard, and they do not get praised enough for it. I think schools should make it so that students care about the Special Olympics, and do not just dismiss the fact it is happening. When other sports make it to state there is a lot of praise, a lot of celebration, and a huge crowd watching. It is mainly only parents at the Special Olympics games. There are also some family members, but mainly just parents. At the state competition for other students there are parents, family members, friends and other students there cheering for the athletes participating in it. Having other students there makes participating in the games more special and fun.

This year I hope to show my school that students in the Special Olympics are very talented and deserve to be recognized for it. We are doing a huge State send off for people in that made it to State in the Special Olympics. None of the athletes know yet. I got the administrators to agree to do it and we got an okay from the teacher. I think this year having the sendoff for state will make the students more appreciative of the Special Education students.