Some students from Lake Orion Schools recently learned first hand what it means to get more than you give by helping local Special Olympians prepare for a bowling competition on Oct. 25.
Students from Lake Orion High School, Scripps and Oakview Middle Schools and some of the local elementary schools, to name a few, have been gathering every Thursday afternoon for the past eight weeks at Collier Lanes in Oxford to bowl with members of the Lake Orion/Oxford Special Olympics Unified Bowling Team.
The Special Olympics program offers sports year-round, ranging from basketball and soccer to snow shoeing and bowling, to individuals ranging in age from eight years old, to into their 30s. Lynn Hillstrom, one of the three Special Olympics co-chairs working out of LOHS, said the program has existed in Lake Orion for at least 10 years. The other program co-chairs are Dawn Makar and Kari Atkison.
“We run sports simultaneously, so they can compete in more than one. We try to make it different days,” she added. “We had eight bowling practices before our competition on Oct. 25 in Waterford.”
The Lake Orion/Oxford team competed in that competition against other Special Olympic teams from across the area and from some school districts such as Holly, Auburn Hills Avondale, Farmington and Birmingham.
Students from LOHS and the middle and elementary schools in Lake Orion can volunteer to help the Special Olympics team members prepare for their competitions, and high school students can earn service learning hours from the program.
“(The Special Olympians) really like it,” Hillstrom said. “They make friends and the kids give them high fives.”
The Lake Orion/Oxford Special Olympics program is funded partially from the state but mostly from private fundraising. The program is currently holding their primary fundraiser for the year, a candy sale.
“We usually spend about $2,000 a year…we buy T-shirts and uniforms for all the kids,” said Lake Orion/Oxford Special Olympics founder and coach Gail Rebert, a LOHS special education teacher consultant.
To find out more about Special Olympics, or to donate to the Lake Orion/Oxford program, contact Lynn Hillstrom at LOHS at 693-5420, ext. 6113.