A long-standing relationship between Special Olympics and Calvin College will be renewed on Saturday, April 29. Special Olympics Michigan Area 11 (Kent and Barry counties) will again contest its Spring games that day on the campus of Calvin College, in the continuation of a community partnership that dates back over a decade. 
The annual games will begin at 8:30 a.m. at the Calvin Fieldhouse (with the Calvin Pep band on hand to provide musical inspiration) and conclude around 1 p.m. 
They will feature a rousing assortment of indoor activities such as swimming, gymnastics, bocce ball and weight lifting as well as outdoor activities such as track & field, softball throw, wheelchair races and walking races. After each event athletes are given a generous assortment of awards, ribbons and hugs. 
Members of a Calvin College physical education class (Special Populations in Physical Education and Recreation), taught by professor James Timmer (above), serve as assistant event coordinators for the games, wrapping up a months-long involvement with the athletes that sees them begin as personal trainers and then act as coaches the day of the competition, while also organizing and running the 400-athlete event -- with lots of help from Calvin's Service-Learning Center. 
Calvin students in recent years have gained much from the games. Said one: "When you see the athletes train it made the day so exciting -- especially when you realize how much time some of these individuals have put into learning the skill or when you see an athlete push way past all of their previous limits. It makes the whole experience more real and more personal. To see someone participate and excel, after you have spent weeks with them, is an even greater reward." 
Such comments are gratifying for Timmer who first approached the leadership of Special Olympics in the late 1980s because he wanted students in his "Special Populations in Physical Education and Recreation" class to have a "hands-on experience" with the people whom they were studying. 
"My thinking was that what they (the students) were hearing from me in the classroom was theoretical," says Timmer. "And that's fine. But the understanding of diversity is also experiential. I wanted to get my students in the field - get them learning the realities of adapting physical activities for special populations. So I went to Special Olympics. The relationship between them and us has worked out very well. I really believe that in learning about special needs people our students learn as much from the person they're working with, as they're able to teach that person. The camaraderie that exists between athlete and coach, the support system - that's really what has become one of the most important parts of this experience." 
Many other Calvin students volunteer throughout the day as chaperones for athletes - including everything from escorting them from event to event to eating lunch together. All told over 100 Calvin students will be involved in the Special Olympics. Representatives from Calvin's Service-Learning Center note the Special Olympics are one of Calvin's biggest single-day volunteer project outside of StreetFest.