OAKA, Olympic Village and The Ringer!!!

June 30, 2011

Today we had a late start due to a webinar going on . We left the hotel at 10 to head to OAKA again to watch the athletes participate in their events. We went to track and field first with our friends from Montana, Tanealya and Tammy. We were able to watch their athlete Anton compete in his decatholon long jump. He did a great job and it was great to get to watch the USA compete. Alli and Jordan were able to interview a few more athletes while we were there, one was from Montana and the others were from the Netherlands. We went to power lifting next but unfortunately the event was cancelled for the day. We went to aquatics next and were so excited that we got to watch 3 USA athletes compete in the 25 yard backstroke!! They did a great job and we are so proud of them.  We went back to Olympic village to have lunch with our group. We had pizza and Greek salad.

After lunch we were able to go and tour the Healthy Athletes program at the Helexpo venue. The Healthy Athletes program is amazing and we are hoping that we see more of it in Illinois. Healthy Athletes allows athletes to go through free screenings for their feet, hearing, sight, overall fitness and their teeth. After they are evaluated, they have the opportunity to get free glasses if needed and if they have issues in any of the other areas, they are given doctor recommendations in their own country/state. It was an incredible program to see and we were glad to have the tour. As of today, they had helped over 7,000 athletes in just five short days!!

After the tour, we headed back to our hotel to rest and then get ready for dinner. Tonight we had dinner with regional staff and presidents. We were able to meet some great people from North Carolina. Unfortunately, the Illinois president could not make it but there was a very special guest in attendance…Brady Lum, the president and COO of Special Olympics International. It was great to hear him speak and it was nice of him to take time out of his busy schedule to have dinner with us!

When dinner was finished, we headed up to a meeting room for a special screening of “The Ringer” which is a movie starring Eddie Barbanell and Johnny Knoxville about Special Olympics. It is a really great movie and our youth had the opportunity to watch it tonight with Eddie Barbanell!! Eddie is great and is a really good speaker. He got everyone pysched for the movie. This event was sponsored by our friends at Mattel!!

Another great day in Greece…can’t wait for tomorrow!!

                               Alli, Jordan and Tanealya with the athlete from Montana they interviewed at track.

                                                   Track venue

                                             Team USA swimmers!

 Alli and Kim posing with Barbie in the Mattel tent in Olympic Village

 Healthy athletes venue

 Getting a tour of healthy athletes!

 Brady Lum at dinner

 Eddie introducing the movie "The Ringer"

Jordan and Eddie after the movie when Eddie signed his DVD.

Apolo and Me!

June 28, 2011

Apollo Anton Ohno

Jordan had the opportunity to film a small question and answer session with Apollo Ohno today. Below is his perspective of his experience.

I am an athlete who enjoys the thrill of competing. There are millions of athletes worldwide who enjoy it as well. I have won eighteen medals in eight years of competing in Special Olympics. Although in competitions there is only one winner, off the fields/court/ice, we all team up hoping to achieve the same victor of unity together. Yesterday, I got the chance to meet Mr. Apollo Anton Ohno, a US Olympic gold medalist and a fifteen-year speed skating veteran. Apollo has been very passionate about his sport for many years and has worked really hard to get to where he is today. Off the ice, Apollo is working for the same goal as many of us at the summit, and that is to create inclusion and unity in sports. Ohno has been a supporter of Special Olympics for many years and hopes to give more Special Olympians the chance to speed skate. He is also a follower of Tim Shriver’s “Dignity Revolution” and will rebel against exclusion along with millions of other people. From one gold medalist to another, it has been an honor to interview you, Apollo Ohno and I hope to see you at another World Games in the future.

Just because we're stuck in the hotel doesn't mean we can't have fun!!!

June 29, 2011

Today was an interesting day! The youth had a special Empowerment breakfast so they left around 7:30am for the Hilton hotel, which is about a 15-minute walk from our hotel. The chaperones were to meet the youth there at 9:30am. Kim walked over with Jill from Oregon and A’Lisa from North Carolina. When we arrived there were protests happening about 75 yards from the hotel. We could see and hear them. There were a ton of police and SWAT around. The police and SWAT all carry automatic weapons and gas masks. When we went into the hotel, we saw Ron and Joanne, our leaders who told us we would be staying in the Hilton all day because of the protests. We all felt safe and continue to feel safe. When we got to the youth, Jordan was all excited because Dikembe Djumbo was there. He wanted to get a picture and his autograph. This was the breakfast that Jordan’s video with Apollo Ohno played as well so Jordan was a pretty happy dude.

After the Hilton quickly switched over the room, (Thank you to the Hilton for being so incredibly accommodating!) we started our sessions. Our first session was about the “Red Laces Campaign” which started as a way to unify supporters of Special Olympics and to raise money for sports equipment for SO teams. We all got a pair of red laces and had to come up with ideas on how to market them in our community. After we wrote our ideas down, we had to string them through our laces with a country flag and tie together with others to make a huge lace idea chain. It was a pretty cool activity and the red laces campaign is a great idea. We can’t wait to put my laces in our shoes! By the way, Tim Shriver wears his laces in ALL his shoes including his dress shoes!

We had an amazing lunch, thanks to Joanne one of our fearless leaders who ordered it for us.

Our next session was presented by our Illinois youth!! They were fantastic! They presented on how to present to an SO board or community board. They did a great job of tag teaming and used a power point to give an example of what you should present at a board meeting. Kim is incredibly proud of them and feels so lucky to have such powerful youth with her!! Once Alli and Jordan were finished, two current SOI board members came and talked about how youth can bridge the gap between the board and the youth. It was a great session overall and very inspiring.

Our next session was presented by Jennifer Carriero from TakingITGlobal, which is a great organization! Google it….it’s worth it. She spoke about different types of leadership and how everyone no matter what type of leadership can get involved! It was a great session and we can’t wait to use some of her stuff when we get back! We had to leave this session early and go back to our hotel because we had to help host a webinar. It was great because Kim’s fantastic Grandma, was able to join our webinar with her AWESOME summer school class!! It was an amazing exchange and we think they enjoyed it is well! Thanks Grandma for getting involved!! 

After the webinar, we went out to a great dinner with NC, Colorado, Germany and Montana at a great restaurant called Cross. It had Greek and Italian food! We all enjoyed it. Right next store, there was an amazing patisserie that had homemade gelato so we all got some. Kim got snickers and Alli and Jordan got caramel. It was awesome! The rest of the night was ours because we couldn’t go anywhere else. So they had a dance in the basement of the hotel for those that wanted to stay up. Alli, the party animal, went to the dance and Jordan and Kim turned in for an early night. We all finally got more than 5 hours of sleep last night!! It was great!

                          Eddie Barbanell sat at Alli and Jordan's table for breakfast.

                                  Jordan's video being shown at the breakfast.

                                       Jordan helping to lead the dance party at the end of the breakfast.

                                Jordan and Dikembe Djumbo at the breakfast.

                                         Jordan getting Dikembe's autograph.

                                          Protests.

                                     Sarah from NC, Alli and Eddie Barbanell.

                                     Our red laces activity.

                                   Jordan and Alli rocking their presentation.

                                      Jennifer from Taking IT Global.

                                          Dinner at Cross.

OAKA!!!

June 27, 2011
Today was another great day. We started our day separately because Jordan had another opportunity of a lifetime! Apollo Anton Ohno was supposed to speak at a Youth breakfast on Wednesday but due to the possible airport strike, he had to leave early. Jordan was asked to go this morning and be part of a small group of youth (4) to meet with him and interview him on camera. The session is going to play at the youth breakfast on Wednesday morning. He did an amazing job and truly represented the athletes of Special Olympics.

Alli and Kim went to our first session this morning, which were held at the Microsoft offices in Athens. The session focused on Unicef and youth empowerment. Alli participated in an activity called The Flower of Empowerment, which had each team think about how their youth is involved in their schools and Special Olympics, and whether they feel empowered. This session was fun, informative, motivating and interactive.

We met Jordan  at OAKA, which is where some of the athletic events are being held. We had lunch at the aquatics stadium and then Alli and Jordan had to go and interview athletes, fans, families and coaches. They did an amazing job!! The first athlete they found was from Great Britain. The second athlete they found was from Venezuela and could not speak English so Jordan translated both ways for Alli and our other group members. It was one of the coolest interactions we have seen here. Jordan did a great job and just jumped in. They interview at least 10 people including a parent from Illinois!! It was awesome! Once they finished interviews in the aquatics center, we went to walk around Olympics village. It was very cool and we were able to purchase some souvenirs. After we finished at Olympic Village, we went to see the basketball venue and to do some more interviews. While we were there, we were able to interact with a bunch of Team USA members! They were great and so excited to be here! We also got to watch the Team USA basketball team take on a Greek All-Star team in an exhibition. Team USA lost but they are an incredible team!!!

One thing we have forgotten to mention here is that pin trading here is huge! We brought some pins from Illinois and have been trading since the 2^nd day we were here! Today was a big day for trading because there were athletes all around! We have pins from China, Hong Kong, Great Britain, Korea, Morocco and many more places. It has been awesome getting to meet so many amazing people!!

Today there were some protests near the capital and they turned violent. We are all ok and the only way it affected us here was that we couldn’t go and explore Plaka and have dinner there on our own. We had to stay near the hotel. We decided to go with the Montana, North Carolina and Great Britain delegations out to eat. We went back to the restaurant we ate at before Opening Ceremonies. Again, it was delicious!! Alli and Jordan had chicken souvlaki and Kim had a Greek Salad and Spinach pie or Spanakopita. It was great and the people at that restaurant are wonderful!!

                                    Jordan and Apolo and his other interview partners!

                                       Aquatics venue

Jordan, Alli and Tanealya interviewing and Jordan translating for Team Venezuela.

                                        Picture with Team Venezuela

                            Jordan, Alli and Tanealya interviewing a parent from Illinois.

                                    Everyone at Olympic Village

                            Everyone with Apollon!!!

TEAM USA playing a Greek all-star team at the Basketball venue. Team USA is an amazing team!!

We are ok!

Just wanted to write a quick note to let everyone that we are ok. We are not staying near the Parliament. We did walk through the protesters camps the day before the violent protests started. We are being affected by the transit strikes and it is changing some of our daily plans but it general we are safe and still doing the work we are supposed to be doing! Internet is still spotty so I am loading blogs as fast as I can...Thanks for being patient!!

Parliament and the Amazing Acropolis!

June 27, 2011

Today we started by going to the Greek Parliament. We thought we were going to observe a session of Parliament but it was a special event created just for us. We walked into this beautiful room and were invited to sit in the members of Parliaments seats. It was pretty amazing. When we sat, there was a program written in Greek and English for us to follow and let us know that this was a program solely about the Global Youth Summit. The President of the Hellenic Parliament, the Prime Minister of Greece, His Holiness the Ecumenical, the Minister of Education, Lifelong Learning and Religious Affairs, the Deputy Minister of Health and Social Solidarity, Tim Shriver, Stratigis Voukidis (Greek Youth Leader for the GYAS) and Mathew Williams (Global Messenger from Canada). The speeches were incredible and it felt amazing to be a part of it. Alli and Jordan have felt the need to do more to promote youth activism and this just intensified it further. They understood the weight of being part of moment like that. For Kim, it made her want to go back to the States and get our local government to wake up and start funding more programs like this and to finally take an interest in people with disabilities. It was a powerful program. Tim Shriver’s speech was the most incredible, inspiring and challenging speech that we have heard here. We are hoping to get you a link to it soon. Watch it…we dare you.

After we were finished we went to Mounstraki square and had lunch. We were on our own for lunch so we finally got our Greek Gyro!! Jordan and Kim had a chicken gyro and Alli had a beef gyro. It came with tomato, onion, tatzaki and fries in it if you wanted. It was amazing!! So amazing we took a picture!

Once we finished with lunch, we went for our tour of the Acropolis. Our volunteer guides for the whole starting at the Parliament were named George and Apollo. Our guide for the Acropolis was named Alena. She was excellent and we learned a ton from her!

Jordan and Alli wanted to give you their perspective on our trip to the Acropolis.

“In the United States, anything from before1800 is considered old. The Greeks would laugh at that. They have beautifully constructed buildings from BC times, such as the Acropolis. It is amazing how a building could still stand and look magnificent after wars, growth and time, along with a lack of modern technology. Although the once vibrant colors of the Parthenon have faded, its beauty remains and should be an example to modern architecture. The Acropolis provided breathtaking views of the city, ranging from ancient ruins to the modern Olympic stadiums, which our athletes are competing in! Seeing such a beautiful structure will be a moment we will never forget.”

When we came down from the Acropolis, we had a surprise waiting for us, Alli’s mom Karen had found us and wanted to say hello. Karen came to Athens to explore and to go on a five-day bus tour. She will be coming to closing ceremonies too!! It was nice to see her and spend a little time in Athens with her!

After our visit, we took the Metro (for the first time) to the Village mall to go bowling. Mattel is a huge sponsor for Special Olympics and specifically Project Unify and they wanted to host an event for the Global Youth Summit so they took us bowling. About 50 volunteers came and hosted us at Village Bowling. They provided dinner and drinks and about 3 hours of bowling. It was an awesome event that our group loved! It was another great day!!

                                              sitting in Parliament with our friends from NC

                                                    Parliament

                                          Translator head set and program

                                           Prime Minister

                                           Tim Shriver

                                             Outside of Parliament

                                          Delicious chicken gyro

                                            Alli, Tanealya, Jordan and Kim at the Acropolis

                                           Entrance to the Acropolis

                                                Alli and her mom at the Acropolis

                                           Mattel Bowling!

Everybody!!

June 26, 2011

This morning we headed to the Doukas School here in Athens. It was cool to see a Greek school and we had some Greek youth with us. The first session this morning was presented by Andrew Rezpa from Gallup. It was one of the best sessions we had. He was very engaging and interactive with the youth. He spoke about the 3 aspects that Gallup focuses on when they do their youth surveys (ages 12-17), hope, engagement and well-being. He stated that these are the three aspects that have nothing to do with economic status. For Kim, this was an incredible session because it validated her feelings about these things being part of a school and they are usually not the focus. For Alli and Jordan, they felt similarly and wished that they felt that these were part of the focus in their schools and not just academics. One of the activities that Andrew did was to have us imagine our perfect day 10 years into the future. It was a great activity and at the end we all had to share with our individual teams. Andrew asked for a volunteer to share their perfect day and Jordan immediately raised his hand and shared. He shared his perfect day and said it would be that he was teaching high school Spanish and all of his students had gotten A’s and B’s on their test. He was asked how he would get to that day and he said he would study hard. When asked how he would avoid obstacles, he said he would go to the library or to his parent’s house to study. When asked who would tell about this goal, he firmly said, “EVERYBODY!” It was great and he did a great Job. Alli and Kim were very proud of him for sharing.

Our next session was regarding the “Spread the Word to End the Word” campaign. The team from Trinidad & Tobago presented a great PowerPoint that defined the r-word in dictionary terms and in slang terms. The quote we liked the best was “If you can’t help someone, at least don’t hurt anyone.” (Dalai Lama) The team from Oregon and India presented on the R-word and how it made them feel. The team from the Philippines presented on their Rotary Club and they have helped support this campaign back in their country. They also mentioned that they help people with disabilities set up micro businesses in the form of food stalls or trucks. The team from Panama was next and they presented a great list of words to use instead of the R-word, which got everyone excited. It was incredible to see the athlete being so passionate in her language about this topic because we could still feel the power of her words even before her partner translated for her. North Carolina was up next and they had an activity for us. They had us all stand in a large circle and asked us a variety of questions and depending on how comfortable we were, we had to either stay where we were if we were comfortable, moved a little towards the center if we were a little uncomfortable and move to the center if we were totally uncomfortable. It was a great activity that got the youth moving and thinking about what they were willing to do and why or why not the would do it.  The youth then had the opportunity to participate in Unified Sports, which the team from Germany organized. They were able to play basketball, soccer and volleyball. Jordan was in heaven!! The school was kind enough to provide us with dinner.

After our time at the school, we went to the village mall to have dinner. We went to the food court which was similar to the food courts in America (there was a Ruby Tuesdays, Starbucks etc) but it was also different because there were a lot more sit down restaurants than we have in our malls.  Also, the food court portion of the mall stays open even when all the shops close. We went to a restaurant called Be Twins coffee shop, but it didn’t look like a coffee shop nor did they serve food like a coffee shop! Alli and Kim had a turkey sandwich on a thin pita like bread and Jordan had a club sandwich, which was slightly different than our traditional club sandwich, but he still enjoyed it.

When we got back to our hotel, Loretta Claiborne was in the lobby waiting for us. It turned out that everyone was running late so we moved our night activity back an hour so Jordan, Alli and I were able to hang out with her for awhile before we started our cultural exchange. She is an incredible woman who is passionate about youth, sports and Special Olympics. The cultural exchange was fun and it was great to see everyone share his or her culture with everyone here. Everyone got involved in the dancing and singing. It was a fun night!

                      Jordan and Diego from Bolivia who looks just like my Grandma's student Elliot!

                                          Andrew from Gallup

                                         Jordan playing basketball with the everyone at the Doukas school

                                          The Doukas School

                            Jordan, Alli and Skyler from Oregon trying to look AWAKE!!

                                          Kim and Loretta Claiborne

                                           Jordan, Loretta and Alli