Special Olympics 50 Game Changers (Videos)

URL: https://www.jointherevolution.org/50-game-changers

ESPN and Special Olympics have teamed up on a year-long storytelling initiative telling the stories of game changers and game changing moments toward inclusion. Check back each week for a new story of inclusion. Below is a sample of the game changing inclusion stories:

• Unified Sports (Video) Length: 5:26 mins
  Unified Sports was inspired by a simple principle: training together and playing together is a quick path to friendship and understanding for athletes with and without intellectual disabilities.

  “It’s not he or she. It’s us and we.” Jake Van Mierlo, Unified Partner. On this week’s @SpecialOlympics 50 Game Changers, see how Unified Sports is changing the experience for athletes all over the world! #InclusionRevolution

• Bree Bogucki (Video) Length: 5:16 mins
  For Bree Bogucki, growing up was anything but easy. Her disabilities prevented her from living the life she knew she could have. She grew up isolated, locking herself in her room. At nine-years-old, Bree was introduced to sports and her life was changed forever.

  Bree quickly began to excel, landing her not only an athletic scholarship but an academic one as well at Tennessee Wesleyan. It was there where Bree began to thrive as an athlete, student, but also an advocate for those with disabilities.

• Rosas’s Law (Video) Length: 5:19 mins
  “Some say we shouldn’t worry about the words, just the way we treat people. But if you think about it, what you call people is how you treat people. If we change the words, maybe it’ll be the start of a new attitude towards people with intellectual disabilities. And they deserve it.”

  In 2010, President Barack Obama signed “Rosa’s Law” which changed “mental retardation” to “intellectual disability” in US federal law. Inspired by nine year-old Rosa Marcellino, the law was a key component in the groundswell of advocacy efforts promoting inclusive, people first language for people with intellectual disabilities.

  One such effort to end the hurtful use of the “R-word” is the “Spread the Word to End the Word” campaign, launched in 2009, inspiring over 1,000,000 people to sign the pledge to end the R-word. Ten years later, Spread the Word to End the Word is becoming Spread the Word: Inclusion, focusing beyond one word and creating a new reality of inclusion for all people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.