Volunteers needed for NY Special Olympics Summer Games

For the second straight year, the Special Olympics New York Summer Games will be hosted in Ithaca. Less than a month away from the opening ceremony, the need for volunteers is still strong.

Special Olympics NY is looking for approximately 300 more people to help put on the Summer Games, which will take place June 9-10 in multiple locations throughout the city. There are countless opportunities for volunteers regardless of their knowledge of sports, something Special Olympics NY President/CEO Stacey Hengsterman has emphasized.

“There are jobs for people that don’t have any sports experience, and there are jobs for people that do have sports experience,” Hengsterman said. “We will train you on-site. It could be anything from referees for basketball and track and field. It could be escorts to various venues, escorting the athletes as they arrive at their events, timers and linesmen, setups and breakdowns, and helping with meals. It’s a great opportunity for families, recreational sports teams, and students.”

This year’s Summer Games will be the second of three consecutive years held in Ithaca. The city was originally supposed to host in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the Summer Games for the following two years. The event’s return last year brought back fond memories for Hengsterman in Ithaca.

“It was like magic,” Hengsterman said. “Ithaca College was a great place for opening ceremonies. The community really turned out for the whole thing and got us the volunteers that we needed. The athletes were thrilled. Even my son [Alex] competed for the first time in powerlifting and stayed over. It was fantastic.”

While Ithaca College is hosting the majority of the events, Ithaca High School will host track and field while bowling will take place at Midway Lanes in Vestal. Besides the top-notch facilities, there’s an even bigger factor that makes Ithaca the ideal place to host the Summer Games.

“It’s all about community,” Hengsterman said. “That’s what we look for when we find communities to partner with. We can’t do this alone. We bring the athletes, we bring the sports and the coaches, but we need volunteers and we need funding. The community helps us raise money and they help us recruit volunteers. We need that 300 to make the weekend safe and successful, so we really depend on the community for that.”

The Summer Games will remain largely the same from last year apart from two changes. The first is that all participants will not have to be vaccinated for COVID-19 this time around. The bigger change is the addition of a “Night of Champions” event on June 8 at Stewart Park, which will act as both a fundraiser and a chance to honor those in the community that have gone above and beyond to help the athletes. Those being honored include Ithaca College President La Jerne Terry Cornish, former Tompkins Cortland Community College President Carl Haynes, Ithaca Police Department Lieutenant Barry Banfield, and the Summer Games Organizing Committee Co-Chairs Karli Buday and Michael Perehinec.

“One of the ways that we started fundraising in different regions is by honoring those in the community and having more of a barbecue and picnic,” Hengsterman said. “It’s great. It’s a chance for us to say thank you, but it’s also a chance for us to show the community different ways that you can help and use the champions that we honor to inspire others to do the same.”

Hengsterman has been the head of Special Olympics NY since 2018, and during that time, the organization has seen tremendous growth statewide. This has been especially evident over the past year with a 38 percent increase in athletes, taking the current participation across New York between 40,000 and 42,000. The goal is to get to 70,000, and events like the Summer Games will only help get to that mark.

“We are recruiting new athletes all the time to join our movement,” Hengsterman said. “But to do that we need to recruit new coaches, we need more volunteers, we need more dollars. While we’re doing that, we want to make sure our current athletes are getting even more opportunities. If they play in one sport, we’d like them to play in two sports. If they are playing in two seasons of sports, we want to get them in our athlete leadership program. [We’re] just making sure they have as much opportunity available to them as they possibly can. We’re having a ball.”

With 820 athletes and coaches across the state participating in this year’s Summer Games—120 of which from the Southern Tier—this event is a can’t-miss opportunity for volunteers.

“It will be one of their favorite days,” Hengsterman said. “They will love the enthusiasm, the sportsmanship that they see, the community that we have and they will definitely be back. It’s a really, really fun day, and we make it very easy.”For more information on volunteering, go to specialolympics-ny.org and click “Volunteer for Summer Games.”