June 24, 2011
What an incredible day! We started with a Greek breakfast (greek yogurt, greek pastries, more savory than sweet things) and then headed to our first meeting in the Olympia room at our hotel. We began with some ice breakers that the German and Kyrgyz delegations planned. In the middle of the games, Tim Shriver- Chairman and CEO of Special Olympics, came and met with us. For all three of us, this was an amazing opportunity. Jordan answered one of Tim’s questions “How can you get beyond someone thinking they are better than anyone else?” Jordan shared with Tim about how he did numerous stories for his high school’s television sports program to show there was no difference in what Special Olympics does and other sports compete! Tim responded with such energy and said to Jordan “Both take guts, strength, confidence and competition right?!” to which Jordan responded with loud, confident ‘yes’!! Tim charged us with being leaders in the “dignity revolution” which is such an awesome term for what we are doing here. He also asked us to consider setting a goal of making sure every school in the world has a Unified Sports program. It was an incredible session with a great visionary! After Tim’s speech, Jordan went up to him to thank him for his kind words about his article in the Daily Herald. Tim noticed his t-shirt which was Abbott and Costello “who’s on first.” Tim asked him if he liked Abbott and Costello and Jordan said yes and started reciting the whole skit! Tim thought it was really funny. It was such a genuine interaction. Tanealya, one of our youth leaders, then introduced Soeren Palumbo, who gave the infamous R-Word speech a couple of years ago. He started the R-Word movement and SO college along with Tim Shriver’s son, Timbo. Timbo came to visit us this morning as well! After all the VIP visits, we finished our ice breakers and then had our first session lead by Daniel Fink, another youth leader where the youth had to come up with a club they could start at their school. Our table was composed of Illinois, North Carolina, and Italy! We came up with The F.A.N Club- Friends Accepted Now. Every table had to present and it was pretty cool hearing all the languages when other delegates were presenting.
Check out the Project Unify blog to see Tim Shriver speaking to us!! http://projectunifyblog.wordpress.com/
Lunch today was a simple, good ham sandwich and a piece of fresh fruit.
We took our first trip alone outside the hotel today to the grocery store! We stocked up on some bottled water, Coca Cola Light for Kim, sparkling lemonade for Alli and Fanta for Jordan. We each got some snacks too. Right before we left the power went out, so we had to pay in cash! The power for the whole block went out.
Tonight we walked to the Hilton for dinner. It was great to get to walk in Athens. It is such a cool, busy city! At the Hilton, there was quite a bit of security because it is where all the VIPs are staying and is the main hotel for the games. It is also a major sponsor of the games. We had the opportunity to have dinner with some of the SOI board members and were able to hear from Kevin Farr, CFO from Mattel, a major sponsor of Project Unify and Ray Lane, a SOI board member and major supporter of Special Olympics. We then watched the film, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” We then got to hear from and meet Zhang Ziyi, the star of the film. She is an SOI Global Ambassador as well. We just got back from our evening and are ready for bed!!! Hope you enjoy the pictures and are enjoying the blog!!!
Zhang Ziyi and Daniel Fink
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