Student bowlers make the climb together
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Evan Bourne, a Mill River Union High School student, high-fives another student after bowling a strike in Rutland. Special Olympic athletes from area schools competed in the unified sports event on Monday. Vyto Starinskas / Rutland Herald |
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By Cristina Kumka Staff Writer - Published: December 15, 2009
Traci Barrett said she thinks of singer Miley Cyrus when she watches her daughter, Cidni, and her classmates bowl.
But it's not because Cidni has any likeness to Cyrus. "They are constantly on the climb to succeed," Barrett said, referring to the pop star's impassioned song, "The Climb."
Barrett, along with other parents, grandparents, teachers, principals, police officers and other community members, watched Monday as dozens of special needs students from four area schools braved their own athletic and social challenges at Rutland's Bowl-a-Rama.
The bowling alley was host to an annual Special Olympics Vermont sporting event called School-based Unified Team Bowling, where disabled students are paired with nondisabled students in a friendly atmosphere that lends itself to bonding among students and also among parents of disabled children, participants said.
It is Cidni's third year bowling. She became a competitor in the Special Olympics after she was recently diagnosed with a learning disability, her mother said.
"I go to every one of her tournaments and I wouldn't miss it or trade it for anything," Traci Barrett said.
And the Barrett family's love for the sport is not exclusive, according to Donna Diaz, director of sports for Special Olympics Vermont.
"There are 10 other schools participating at the Twin City Lanes & Games," in Barre, Diaz said in between giving out medals and ribbons to each student.
"There are 176 competitors this year, up 58 percent," from last year, she said.
At Rutland's Bowl-a-Rama, roughly 80 students from Mill River Union High School, Rutland High School, Rutland Intermediate School and West Rutland School clutched balls and in pairs, aimed for strikes together.
In the end, students were placed in divisions, intermingled from all schools, and awarded based on their top scores.
Rutland School Resource Officer Christopher Greene, Rutland Officer Tim Tuttle, and Mill River School Resource Officer Jenn Czachor first gave high-fives, then draped ribbons around the students' necks.
"One student told me their mom was getting them a bowling ball for Christmas," said Mill River teacher Unified Sports coach Judy Kennedy.
Bowling is one of 11 sports offered through Unified Sports, a program run by the Special Olympics, which runs five annual tournaments with students from 18 schools, according to the Special Olympics Vermont Web site.
Other sports include soccer, golf, bocce, alpine skiing, snowshoeing, swimming, basketball, track and field, and softball with bowling, basketball, and soccer attracting the largest participation, according to the Web site.
Its purpose is to break down barriers that exist between athletes of all abilities.
Special needs students at Bowl-a-Rama on Monday said it was fun to get out of school for the day but even more exciting to get to know each other.
"Kids that don't have any advantages get to do the things all other kids do," said 13-year-old Shelby Adams of West Rutland School who walked away with a gold medal for her performance.
A complete list of bowling medal winners is expected to be posted on the Special Olympics Vermont Web site www.vtso.org this week.
cristina.kumka@rutlandherald.com
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