Opening Ceremonies!!!

Opening Ceremonies Jun 25, 2011 Athens Greece

After our dinner at the local restaurant, we took a double decker bus to the staging area for Opening Ceremonies. As we were waiting to walk to the staging area, we watched as the Greek SWAT team walked by. Greece has made us feel very safe and we have never felt uncomfortable this whole time. Our staging area was right in front of a beautiful building. We then realized we were the first to go! We were leading the whole country parade of athletes! It was overwhelming and so cool. We all had to wear the same uniform. After waiting about 15 minutes in the staging area, we got the word it was time to start lining up! We followed our leader to the front of the line directly in front of the stadium. The stadium was built for the first modern Olympic games in Athens in 1896 and is beautiful! It was such an honor to just sit in there, let alone be a part of such a historic moment! While we were waiting to actually walk, we saw Yao Ming, Apollo Anton Ohno and the Guardians of the Greek buildings. The Guardians guard the Acropolis and other important buildings in Greece and stand completely still for their 3- hour shift. Our excitement was growing and we started a wave through the teams! It was finally time to go and a woman in traditional Greek dress held our sign and led us to this incredible world stage! It was amazing! We all agree it is the coolest things we have ever done! Our arms hurt from waving by the end of the walkway because it stretched the length of the stadium. We felt emotional, excited, overwhelmed and excited as we walked.

We then found our seats for this incredible Ceremony. The parade of athletes was incredible and it was amazing to watch everyone that is part of the GYAS cheer for each other’s countries. From where we were sitting, the Acropolis was just visible and looked incredible lit up at night. The USA team was dressed in red shirts and awesome red and white shorts and it was a HUGE delegation. We all had a huge sense of pride watching those athletes walk in. Jill Biden accompanied the US team. The final delegation was of course the home delegation, Greece! They looked amazing and they were another huge delegation. The MC’s were Vanessa Williams (singer, actress and more importantly an SOI Board member) and a star here in Greece. We wanted to tell you how the order of events went so enjoy….

·      Parade of Athletes

·      Greek Flag presentation

·      Zhing Ziyi- Global SO Ambassador gave a speech

·      Performance by Greek Dancers called the Calling

·      Maria Menenous- introduced 12 Global Messengers from around the world who shared their personal victories- VERY powerful because it just wasn’t SO victories it was life victories

·      Remembering Eunice Kennedy Shriver with a Tribute video—an honor to remember this incredible visionary who will never be forgotten nor will her vision die

·      Greek President and Tim Shriver spoke to us—highlight was when Tim asked all of us to join the “Dignity Revolution” again and then asked the Greek president if Eunice could be an honorary Greek Goddess!

·      An AMAZING speech and performance by Stevie Wonder- Stevie used the theme of the games “Ime Mesa” as the theme of his speech. Ime Mesa means “I’m in” We hope you are all in too!!

·      A performance by Greek dancers to the Odyssey story

·      Presentation of the Special Olympics flag-Michelle Kwan was a carrier

·      A Chariot flew over the stadium to bring the torch carrier in—AMAZING and beautiful

·      A bunch of torch carriers lined the walkway as the torch was run around the stadium and then the carrier lit a rope and it went all the way to light the torch

·      A beautiful duet

·      Fireworks

It was an amazing ceremony and it was truly an honor to be a part of it! We then went to catch the bus…it was around 1am at this time. By the time we got on the bus and back to the hotel, it was 3:40am! We had to have breakfast and be ready to leave the hotel by 10am.  We didn’t get much sleep but it was all SOOOOOO worth it!! Enjoy the pictures and thanks for reading…we know it was long!!!

This post went on our Project Unify Blog. Enjoy!!

Our perspectives-

Kim- (Coach Perspective)

As a coach and chaperone for the Global Youth Summit, participating in the Opening Ceremonies of the 2011 World Games was one of the best nights of my life. Being able to walk with Jordan and Alli and the rest of the GYAS participants for the first time in GYAS was overwhelming and emotional. I could only think of how far Special Olympics has come since I started volunteering and how much these GYAS participants and athletes deserved this. Being able to see Special Olympics on a global level has been a lifelong dream and the Opening Ceremonies did not let me down. As a coach, I could not have been more proud to see all of the athletes walking in. As a chaperone for GYAS, I was so excited to be an observer of this amazing youth movement and felt the weight of what these youth are about to accomplish. I found myself feeling proud and emotional while watching these ceremonies with the Acropolis glowing in the background of this historic moment for me, the GYAS and Special Olympics.

Alli- (Peer perspective)

Words cannot describe how amazing walking into the opening ceremonies was. You know how in the movies, sports players walk onto the field and they look around at everyone and all of the flashing lights in awe? This was just like that. It was so surreal. Watching every country walk onto the stage made me realize why we are here and how much of an impact the Global Youth has the potential to make. We are going to get more supporters, programs and are going to help motivate these hard working athletes even more. The Global Messengers were such a huge inspiration to me. As they spoke about their greatest accomplishment, ranging from getting married to winning a medal and dedicating it to their best friend, I was moved by how much these people could accomplish. Their inspiration motivates me to work even more when I get back, so that every person with a disability has the opportunity to live up to their full potential. I know these athletes will be able to do whatever they want on and off the playing field. Participating in the opening ceremonies is something I will never forget.

Jordan (Athlete perspective)

I have been competing in Special Olympics for many years in three different sports. I have been in many high adrenaline situations but last night, I had the biggest non-competitive adrenaline rush. Imagine leading your team out of the locker room and onto the field in the Super Bowl. That was what it was like leading off the introductions to the 2011 Special Olympics World Games Opening Ceremonies. That night included lots of excitement with a bunch of Greek singing and dancing, an amazing performance by Stevie Wonder, and being less that a football length away from NBA superstar Yao Ming, here representing the athletes of his native country China. However, out of all of those, the best part of the night was hearing from twelve Global Messengers from all parts of the world. They talked about what their greatest victory has been. I learned that winning a gold medal is not the only victory in Special Olympics. Some of the answers included getting married, going to school and getting a good education, having a successful job and many others. Although some of them did not speak English, I could still understand that they worked hard and truly deserved whatever it was. As for myself, my biggest victory (other than winning four championships in basketball) is being part of one of the biggest youth movements in the world. 

Social Networking, Education and The Shrivers!

June 25, 2011
This morning we started out with our Greek breakfast and then headed to our first session downstairs in the Olympia room. Our first presenter was from Microsoft Hellas, Lia Komninou, who taught us all about internet and computer safety. Individual teams (Nebraska, India, Pakistan, South Korea, Romania, Indonesia) presented next about social networking and how to use it effectively to spread the word. They also shared with us how they use it in their countries. India shared that social networking is not used very much on the internet. They started a “Spread the word to End the Word campaign just by creating a pledge sheet and collected over 11 million signatures!!! Check out this cool video from the Nebraska team….

Our next session was about Unicef and we participated in an activity with needs and wants. Our athletes and partners were asked to look at the needs and wants presented and pare them down to the bare minimum. All teams did a great job!

Alexa Posen came to speak to us as well. She is from the Department of Education in the United States. She shared with us the US' plan for Special Education in the future. 

Our final session for the day was about Social Justice. Colorado had us participate in an activity where you had to try and recognize someone by their knees only. The point was that no one should be judged from the outside, you need to know the whole person. This session was supposed to be longer but as we were finishing up the activity, the ENTIRE Shriver family came in. Maria and Tim and then various family members including their children came to meet with us. Maria had the Serbia team share the story they had shared at the SOI board meeting. Phillip (athlete) and Luca (partner) shared about their Unified Basketball team in Serbia. Team Venezuela then shared about how they were getting parents involved by having parent workshops so they could all work together-they were having a little trouble with translation so Jordan jumped right in and helped out!! (for those who don’t know, Jordan is fluent in Spanish!) The youth leader then asked for the youth to share about what they think social justice is and what they learned from the activity. Alli went and shared that she thought that social justice is that everyone should be treated the same and no one should be judged and that everyone deserves the same opportunity. Kim was so proud of her for sharing in front of the Shriver family—she was a pro!! It was in incredible session and was such an honor to be able to interact with this visionary family.  They are truly carrying on their mother and grandmother’s legacy.

After that incredible session, we were given some instructions about Opening Ceremonies. Tonight before we left for the Opening Ceremonies, we were taken to a local restaurant by SOI. It was a traditional Greek restaurant. It was delicious! Jordan and Alli had spaghetti pie and Kim had an amazing Greek salad (cucumbers, tomatoes, red onion, feta cheese, kalamata olives and olive oil) and Chicken Souvlaki. It was all delicious and one of the best meals we have had here. Once dinner was finished, we went back to the hotel to put on our uniforms for Opening Ceremonies and got on the bus. Check out our Opening Ceremonies post for details!

                                           Team India sharing about Social Networking

                                           Working on the Unicef activity.

                                           Presenting our banner to Alexa Posen

                                           Team Serbia sharing their story.

                                           Jordan translating for Team Venezuela

                                           Maria Shriver

       Alli sharing her point of view- notice she has the attention of Tim to the left and Maria to the right!

                                           Jordan, Alli and Maria

                                          Table from Day 2- Illiniois, Italy, Trinidad &Tabago & Pakistan

                                           Kim's dinner!

Dignity Revolution!!!!

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!!!

                                                         Tim Shriver CEO of SOI

                                              Soeren Palumbo and Ron Vederman

                                              Team Illinois and Tim Shriver

                                                          Timbo Shriver

                                           Jordan presenting with Luca (Italy) and Sarah (NC)

                                           Alli and Jordan presenting on how to connect to the community.

                                           Working on what motivates us!

                                            Our table- Day 1- Italy, Illinois and North Carolina

                                          Team Illinois and Luca (Italy)

Zhang Ziyi and Daniel Fink

We made it!!

We made it to Greece around 6pm local time yesterday! We had a great flight from Chicago to Amsterdam. We had a 4 hour layover in Amsterdam which is an awesome airport!! We truly enjoyed hanging out at the airport and were able to meet up with the UK delegation for our flight to Athens! We flew to Athens from Amsterdam which was exactly 3 hours. When we landed in Athens, there was Special Olympics World Games everywhere! When we got to baggage claim, there was a delegation there from the GOC waiting for us! Christos was our delegate who helped us get to our bus to take us to the hotel. Our bus took us to many hotels as it dropped off other delegations, so we were able to see a lot of Athens. What a busy city! A lot of cars and motorcycles! Once we arrived at the hotel, we were taken downstairs for dinner. We had traditional Mousakka, lemon chicken and a wonderful chocolate mousse dessert. We then received our credentials and all of our swag for the 2 weeks we are here! We didn't need to pack any clothes! We have an official outfit to wear for opening ceremonies too! We have met so many people for other delegations! It has been an awesome start for our trip. We are so lucky to be a part of this incredible world wide movement!! Enjoy the pictures!!!

Gift from Grandma and Marge!

My grandma and her best friend Marge came to visit us today. She brought a really cool folder with a guide to Greece that she and her Special Olympics athletes and students at Fenton High School made for me. She also gave me a notebook and some money to spend in Greece! Her friend Marge, who just returned from a cruise to Greece, gave me all her leftover Euros! It was such a thoughtful gift and I truly appreciate it! Thanks Grandma and Marge!! It just makes us even more excited for our trip!

Kim

1 Week to Go!!

Welcome to family, friends and fans!! Jordan, Alli and I are so excited to leave in 1 week to head to the 2011 Special Olympics World Games in Athens, Greece! We are going as part of the 2011 Global Youth Activation Summit! We will be participating with 32 other delegations from around the world! Our youth will interact with each other on topics like social justice and many more. Jordan, Alli and I will use this blog to keep track of our personal adventures. We will also be contributing to the Project Unify Blog as part of the Youth Summit...please check it out! We are excited to share this amazing, once-in-a lifetime adventure with you!! Enjoy!!!