A group of Austin-based ASIers volunteered at the Special Olympics Texas offices to do data entry to ensure a quality and fair competition for the athletes, as well as to verify athlete medical information for safety purposes. Eight of us came for a four hour shift, and we started out at the computers, entering the names and birth dates for athletes in training. Greg found the oldest athlete at age 70, and age 6 was our youngest athlete. Kids are allowed to start training at age 6, even though they don’t compete until age 8. As a baby name buff, I enjoyed seeing the names – from Amiracle to Blaze.

Athletes can participate in 20 different sports: Aquatics, Athletics, Basketball, Bocce, Bowling, Cycling, Equestrian, Figure Skating, Golf, Gymnastics, Powerlifting, Roller Skating, Sailing, Soccer, Softball, Speed Skating, Table Tennis, Tennis, Triathlon and Volleyball. Their next big competition event is the 2008 Texas Summer Games, in Arlington, Texas
May 22 - 25, 2008.

We learned from Kenyon, our volunteer coordinator and IT staff person, that Special Olympics Texas was involved in the movie The Ringer with Johnny Knoxville and the movie has the approval of Special Olympics. The movie makers want to ensure an accurate portrayal and met with their staff members beforehand and during filming, which took place near Austin. The athletes who had speaking roles in the move are still collecting royalty checks when the movie plays on HBO, neat!

We didn’t take any pictures at the event this time, but here’s who helped out:

Greg Smyth
Estelle Olvera
Anne Gentle
Dennis Cruz
Emily Guinn
Melissa Burpo
Lara Beck
Erik Stearns
Judy Rodriguez