Northwood hosted Chatham County’s Special Olympics May 19. This event was hosted by the Physical Education Pupil Instructor (PEPI) class. This was the first Chatham County Special Olympics in 15 years.
“I think it’s wonderful considering it’s the first in 15 years, and it allows children with disabilities to participate in activities that normal children do,” said Melinda Martina, Executive Director of Exceptional Children and Gifted Education for Chatham County Schools.
PEPI planned and organized the event. The PEPI venue manager, senior Kayli Blankenship, contacted many individuals, asked for volunteers and helped develop the Hawaiian theme.
“There was a lot of work behind the scenes that we never knew,” Blankenship said.
Lauren Saulter is the Special Olympics sports director for western North Carolina. She described the Special Olympics that Northwood hosted as “unique” because it was largely student led.
“Everybody has a really good attitude,” Saulter said. “[The PEPI class has gotten] little homework assignments after every time we meet, and they’ve been extremely responsible and really good about taking care of those individual things they need to [do].”
Athletic director Jason Amy oversees the PEPI students.
“This our first year doing PEPI, and I’m the coordinator of that here at Northwood,” Amy said. “It gives seniors and juniors an opportunity to learn how to do lesson plans, visit elementary and some of the middle schools around the county and teach physical education classes. As a part of the class, they are required to do a final, which will be the Special Olympics. Technically, the Northwood students in PEPI are in charge of helping set and organize the Special Olympics, so I simply oversee the class and make sure everything is getting done.”
Blankenship commented on the event before it occurred.
“We are having different track and field events [like a typical track meet], and we are also going to have Olympic village, which is going to have face painting, corn hole, can jam, a photo booth, dancing and all these different things for the kids who aren’t participating in that particular event,” Blankenship said.
– By Adrianne Cleven and Carter Owings
