Team Adams August Update

Hello Team Adams supporters,

We have so many sports going on right now as our summer sports are finishing up and most of our fall sports have already begun! We have at least one sport practicing on every day of the week except Fridays right now so get out there and see our athletes in action! Everybody knows that it's more fun to exercise when someone is watching and cheering you on! 😊

Let's go Team Adams!

~ Joy

Joy Weikert

adamsteamleader@gmail.com

717-398-7657

Once again, we were very fortunate to be one of several local organizations to receive a very generous donation from the Mason Dixon Chapter of ABATE of PA! ABATE stands for "Alliance of Bikers Aimed Toward Education" and they sure have a huge heart! As part of their Christmas for Kids Campaign, the bikers once again roared into the Gettysburg Rec Park wearing Santa hats and smiles on their faces to celebrate Christmas in July by presenting us with a very generous check for $10,000!

We cannot thank them enough for supporting our program for the last several years. Donations like this allow us to provide year-round sports competition in 15 sports for over 100 children and adults with intellectural disabilities in the Adams County area! Thank you, ABATE! You certainly made us feel like kids on Christmas morning!

Join us for food, fun, music, games, and awards at our annual family picnic at the Bourbon Mill Pavilion! This is for all Team Adams Class A volunteers, registered athletes, and their immediate families (people who reside with the athlete/volunteer). We will also be presenting the John Steinour Award to one of our awesome athletes as well as the Coach of the Year Award to one of our very deserving coaches!

We will supply burgers, hotdogs, and water. We ask that if your last name begins with A-N that you bring a side dish to share and if your last name begins with O-Z that you bring a dessert to share.

If you are coming, you MUST RSVP to Marcia at 717-802-5556 by August 9!

Have you been considering becoming a certified coach for Special Olympics? Do you have sports knowledge or experience that you'd love to share with our athletes? Would you like to get more involved at practices? Then now is the time to signup to become a certified coach for us!

(NOTE: You must be regsitered as a Class A Volunteer before becoming a certified coach.)

Here are some virtual coach trainings that are coming up:

BOCCE - August 18th @ 6pm-8pm OR August 29th @ 9-11am

LONG DISTANCE RUNNING/WALKING - Aug. 25 @ 6-8:30pm

DID YOU KNOW? We MUST have a sport-certified coach at every practice and every competition. It's helpful to have numerous volunteers certified as coaches for each sport so that they can fill-in if the head coach needs to miss a practice or competition. Otherwise, the practice/competition would have to be cancelled. Also, for competitions, we need to have a certified coach for the team as well as a certified coach for the skills participants.

If interested, login to your volunteer Portal Account:

• Click "Event Sign-Up"

• Select "Sports Training School Registration 2026"

• Choose the training you'd like to attend

Our 18 golfers finished their regular season last week with a Fun Night held at the South Hills Golf Course under the direction of Head Coach Deb Bottomley. 8 of those golfers competed last month at a regional tournament at Valley Green Golf Course. Congratulations to Alyssa Redding for winning the female skills competition and Alex Bair for winning the male Level 2 competition. In style with the PGA Masters Tournament, they both earned green jackets!

Five golfers also competed at the State Golf Championships at Penn National Golf Course held August 2-4. Congratulations to the following state medalists:

Alex Bair (with unified partner Denton Guise) - 4TH PLACE, level 2 unified

Hayden Dell (with unified partner Brian Dell) - GOLD, level 3 unified

Jennifer Bottomley - GOLD, level 5

Alex Harner - SILVER, level 5

Matthew Piavis - BRONZE, skills division

We have 14 athletes who paddle their way around Lake Codorus on Saturday mornings with Head Coach Kevin Strouse. Athletes help carry the kayaks to the water and practice steering the kayaks while paddling solo or in tandem with another rider. Unfortunately, there are no competitions for kayaking for Special Olympics PA, but that doesn't stop our kayakers from getting out on the water to enjoy time with friends while getting some fresh air and exercise out on the beautiful lake! Come cheer them on at their Local Competition on August 29 at 9am at the Codorus Sailboat Launch!

With 25 athletes, our most popular summer sport is pickleball! Athletes have been learning to dink, serve, and keep score on the indoor pickleball courts at the South Hanover YMCA. With Head Coach Dorothy Bollinger temporarily sidelined due to an injury, our pickleballers have been practicing under the direction of Coach Susan Redding. Unfortunately, there are no competitions for pickleball for Special Olympics PA yet, but our pickleballers are still having tons of fun while improving their skills. Hopefully some day they will get to go to competitions to test those skills against other athletes! Come cheer them on at their Local Competition on August 18 at 6:00pm at the South Hanover YMCA!

Our softballers are off to a great start with 21 athletes who practice on Thursday evenings at Oakside Community Park in Biglerville. Last month they battled the heat in a round robin event with teams from Lancaster, Area M, and York as a tune-up for their upcoming tournaments. Good luck to Head Coach Mandy Hollman and the team as they head to a regional Softball Invitational in York next week! And, mark your calendar for their Local Competition on August 20 at 5:30pm at Oakside Community Park in Biglerville! They will end their season at the State Softball Championships at In The Net in Palmyra on August 21-23.

FOCUS Behavioral Health is offering an info night for parents/guardians of our athletes to learn about their Lifesharing program. This is a program that supports parents/guardians in caring for their adult children with autism/IDD challenges. This program is not affiliated with Special Olympics, but we think that many of our families will be interested in learning more about it, especially if you have an adult child with autism/IDD.

See the flyer at right for more details and RSVP to Angela if you're interested.

Our bocce season got off to a rocky start last month with our first practice canceled due to thunderstorms and our second practice canceled due to poor air quality. Luckily, mother nature eventually cooperated and allowed our 32 bocce athletes to get on the courts at The Bourbon Mill in New Oxford on July 24. For those on the bocce team, remember that bocce practices have now moved to Mondays for the remainder of the season!

LDRW doesn't start until September 6, but we can't wait to see what our athletes can accomplish during our first ever season for this sport! Unfortunately, we only have 8 athletes signed up for this year. But that's okay because we know the excitement will spread and allow us to grow this sport bigger and better next year!

Our powerlifting program has been going strong (hehehe) since early June. We have 9 athletes who lift things up and put them down at Hanover Family Fitness on Sunday evenings. The regular season concludes on August 23 with our Local Competition. Come out at 5:30pm and cheer on our athletes as they strive to beat personal records!

Our roller skating season kicks off this week at Magic Elm Skateland! We have 19 athletes who will be rolling, rolling, rolling on Wednesday afternoons at 4:15pm and you would be amazed at how fast some of them zip around the rink! Mark your calendar now for the 4th Annual Regional Roller Skating Competition, which will be held at Magic Elm on the morning of Sunday, October 25!

Volleyball is another sport that had a challenging start to their season due to weather. Luckily, we had a few indoor options for when the weather didn't cooperate. However, a few weeks ago we decided to permanently move our volleyball practices indoors to St. Francis Xavier School in Gettysburg. Not only does this avoid weather issues, but the playing surface will now be the same as the playing surface that our athletes will play on at competitions. You can see our 24 volleyball players in action on Wednesday evenings at 6:30pm!

We'd like to welcome DOROTHY BOLLINGER as our new head coach for our bowling program! Dorothy is an experienced bowler with years of bowling in a league. She is already a certified coach for Special Olympics bowling and has been volunteering with our bowling program for many years. She is also our head coach for pickleball and has served in a variety of roles on our management team over the years, currently serving as our Travel Competition Coordinator. We know she will do an outstanding job taking over the reigns from Coach Harry who retired from coaching bowling at the end of last season.

Speaking of bowling... It is one of our most popular sports! Since there are so many athletes who enjoy bowling, with quite a few traveling from the Hanover area, Team Adams is proud to offer TWO BOWLING TRAINING SITES this year!!! Both locations will practice at 1:00pm on Sunday afternoons. Both locations will offer singles, doubles, ramps, and bumpers. The one location remains at Edgewood Bowl just south of Gettysburg and will be under the direction of Head Coach Darlene Stone. The other location will be at South Hanover Lanes and will be under the direction of Head Coach Dorothy Bollinger.

WHEN SIGNING UP FOR BOWLING, PLEASE BE SURE TO SIGN UP FOR WHICHEVER LOCATION YOU WILL BE ATTENDING. You may only sign up for one location. You cannot go back and forth between locations during the season. You will only be able to attend the location you choose when you sign up.

Our other big news for the winter season is the addition of a new sport for Team Adams... FLOORBALL! We're happy to announce that ANNA CHARNIGO, who has been volunteering with several Team Adams sports for over a year, is going to serve as our head coach for floorball. Anna is looking for both volunteers and players who are excited to make our first year of floorball a positive and fun experience for all! We are still working on securing a location, date, and time for our floorball practices. We will let you know as soon as we have that information!

So what exactly is floorball? Floorball is played a lot like floor hockey. Games are played 5 versus 5 with goalkeepers on a small rectangular court that measures approximately 20 meters long by 12 meters wide, which is a little smaller than a basketball court. The goalkeeper must wear a face mask and other protective gear. The goalkeeper doesn't have a stick and plays on their knees, using their hands and body to block shots. All players, except the goalkeeper, use plastic sticks to try to get a wiffle-type ball into the opposing team's goal cage. It can be a fast-paced and thrilling game! Check out this video below to see floorball in action!

If you're interested in playing or volunteering with bowling or floorball, you must sign up between Sept. 15 - Oct. 15. We will post the link in next month's newsletter as well as on our website and facebook page when it becomes available. The winter sports sign-up window is only 1 month, so don't miss it!

We had several athletes and volunteers participate in the first ever Gettysburg Hometown Flame of Hope Walk in Gettysburg! Held in conjunction with the annual conference of the PA State Fraternal Order of Police, we helped carry the torch and flags for a 1-mile walk with some police officers from across the state of PA. Following the walk, we enjoyed a nice buffet breakfast with the conference attendees and then joined them in the large conference room where SOPA's Vice President of Strategic Partnerships, Eric Cushing, and our very own athlete, Carole Ann Bollinger, spoke briefly to those in attendance. Carole Ann talked about how she got involved in Special Olympics and what Special Olympics means to her. The hope is that next year the event grows into a full Hometown Torch Run in Gettysburg, so get those running shoes laced up and start training now!

Many athletes have Health Histories that are expired or expiring soon and NEED RENEWED! Keep an eye on your email. You are supposed to get an automated email 60 days and 30 days prior to the expiration date, reminding you to renew. NOTE: Automated emails from the portal go to the email address that was used when you set up your portal account. In many cases, that email address belongs to the athlete. ATHLETES & PARENT/GUARDIANS, please check your emails at least once a week to stay informed! Also, please sign in to the online portal and view the expiration date on your Health History Form! If you have forgotten your password, use the "Forgot Your Password" link to reset it. Do NOT create a new account!

Renewing your Health History basically involves logging into your online portal, going to your checklist, clicking on RENEW by the Health History form, reviewing your health information, making any needed updates, and electronically signing the form. You may need to answer some follow-up health condition questions or take a special form to your doctor, but that depends on your health conditions and the severity of them. You will receive an email if you need to do those extra things.

If you need any assistance with your renewal, email our Regional Administrative Manager, Jill Stoner, at jstoner@specialolympicspa.org. If you allow your Health History to expire, you will not be permitted to participate until it has been renewed!

Help is needed with set up, tear down, hydration, lunches, awards, skills, keeping score, medical, etc. No experience necessary. You don't need to be a Class A volunteer, anyone can volunteer for these events and experience the joy of working with our athletes!

We have updated our training schedule since our last newsletter to reflect changes to BOWLING and FLOORBALL.

Aug. 2-4 - State Golf Championships (Penn National Golf Course)

Aug. 8 - Capital Area Region Softball Invitational (Crist Memorial Park, York)

Aug. 16 - Team Adams Picnic (Bourbon Mill, New Oxford)

Aug. 18 - Pickleball Local Competition (South Hanover YMCA)

Aug. 20 - Softball Local Competition (Oakside Community Park, Biglerville)

Aug. 21-23 - State Softball Championships (In the Net, Palmyra)

Aug. 22 - Kayaking Local Competition (Codorus Sailboat Launch)

Aug. 23 - Powerlifting Local Competition (Hanover Family Fitness)

Sept. 2 - Volleyball Local Competition (Bourbon Mill, New Oxford)

Sept. 27 - Central Fall Sectional (Juniata College)

Oct. 5 - Bocce Local Competition (Bourbon Mill, New Oxford)

Oct. 11 - Hershey Fall Classic (tentative date)

Oct. 12 - Bocce Fun Night (Bourbon Mill, New Oxford)

Oct. 25 - Regional Roller Skating Competition (Magic Elm Skateland, Hanover)

Nov. 13-15 - Fall Fest (Villanova Univeristy)

Team Adams Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/specialolympicspennsylvaniaadamscounty

Team Adams Website: https://sites.google.com/view/sopateamadams/home

Capital Area Region Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/capitalarearegion

SOPA Facebook: https://portals.specialolympics.org/

SOPA Website: https://specialolympicspa.org/

SOPA Online Portal: https://portals.specialolympics.org/

Volunteer Questions: Linda Long, volunteersoac@gmail.com or 717-226-0739

New Athlete Questions: Jill Stoner, jstoner@specialolympicspa.org or 717-614-8047

Program Questions: Joy Weikert, adamsteamleader@gmail.com or 717-398-7657

Mailing Address:

Special Olympics PA Team Adams

PO Box 3

Bendersville, PA 17306

The Mission of Special Olympics is to provide year round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, giving them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in a sharing of gifts, skills and friendship with their families, other Special Olympics athletes, and the community.