Central Consolidated School District hosting Special Olympics events
KIRTLAND − Central Consolidated School District announced its schedule of events in honor of its first Special Olympics for upcoming student-athletes.
In collaboration with five schools, each school within the district will hold an event centered on local and area students with disabilities and have their fellow peers work with them on the sport of their choice.
The creation of the Special Olympics is to allow students with disabilities from schools to possibly start competing with other schools in the district if they choose to do so. In a statement released by CCSD, the intent of the program is highlight students by motivating communities to support future upcoming student-athletes.
The program will kick off on Monday at Tse Bit Ai Middle School. Following that, events will take place at Shiprock High on Tuesday, March 21 which will feature students and administrators signing their names to a "Choose To Include" banner which also kicks off the school's annual spirit week.
The "Choose To Include" campaign has been a theme for the Special Olympics campaign for more than a year across the country, with states like Virginia also preparing for its own spring tour, which will include a swimming meet and a torch run event later this spring.
Special Olympics was founded in 1968 and has been focused on showing children how to discover new strengths and abilities, skills and success.
According to SpecialOlympics.org, there are as many as 200 million people with intellectual disabilities around the world. The goal of the organization is to reach out to as many as possible, through a wide range of trainings, competitions, health screenings and fund-raising events.
CCSD is hoping this event will encourage other schools to hold more events in the future and possibly start competing with other schools in the 2023-2024 school year.
Among the other scheduled events will will be a soccer event at Kirtland Central Middle School on Wednesday, March 22 followed by a basketball game on Wednesday, March 29 at Shiprock High School.
Events during the Special Olympics will be featured at least once a week through the end of April, and will include a kickball event on Friday, April 14 and a bocce ball contest at Kirtland Central High School on Wednesday, April 26.
For more information about the upcoming CCSD Special Olympics, including more scheduled events, log on to the website at CCSDNM.org.
This article originally appeared on Farmington Daily Times: Each school within CCSD will host Special Olympics events this spring
