Speech at the Special Olympics Team Summit

"Special Olympics rewards human beings, not nations! We recognize that we are all created by God as one humanity, but we must struggle to truly achieve one humanity, under God, with liberty and justice for all."
Washington, D.C. • September 17, 1998

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

It is an honor to be here with you today to launch a new initiative for Special Olympics called “Team Advantage.” Like many great ideas and new initiatives within the Special Olympics movement, the idea for Team Advantage came from the field not from Headquarters! In fact, many of you in this very room are responsible!!

To me, it seems as if it were only yesterday that I was raising the Special Olympics flag at the World Headquarters of Otis Elevator in Farmington, Connecticut, as part of the announcement of a “global volunteer employee initiative.” Called Team Otis, this initiative was, I believe, unprecedented in corporate philanthropy.

I recall cheering the athletes of the 1995 Special Olympics World Games in New Haven along with many of you from Otis Elevator. What a wonderful 10 days those were! The biggest athletic event in the world that year. Today everyone here represents giant companies and organizations. And today, you are doing a giant thing. Your commitment to our Movement makes your company a leader in your own industry as well as in the new “industry” of inspiring the human spirit — within your own companies and throughout the world.

Ten years ago I said, “Special Olympics is Uniting the World.” That was a very grand statement to make. Critics and cynics disagreed. They said Special Olympics cannot presume to be “Uniting the World.” Ten years ago we were in only 50 countries — today we are in 143! Special Olympics has been in the “human generation” business, reaching more and more of the entire world. More importantly — we will continue to expand until every person with mental retardation is provided the opportunities Special Olympics offers. How can Special Olympics do that?

There are 170,000,000 human beings with mental retardation. No program could reach all of those people, skeptics say. Well, — here’s the basis for thinking we might well be able to do what’s never been done before!

First: Special Olympics is already the largest, amateur sports organization for people with disabilities in the world. 1,250,000 athletes are participating, and 1,062,164 volunteers doing whatever needs to be done. All of that has been achieved in 30 years.

Second: Special Olympics is growing in size faster than any sports organization. By the year 2003, we may well have as many as 2,000,000 or even 3,000,000 athletes, plus a concomitant mass of volunteers - - five million persons by 2003 A.D.

Third: Special Olympics is the only amateur, sports organization, which enrolls older as well as younger people! People of all political parties, all nationalities, all races, all religions, and from every economic level. People from abject poverty to transcendent wealth are welcome! No one has to pay admission, or, any other fee to participate!!

Fourth: Special Olympics focuses the world’s attention on the number one disability in the world — mental retardation! Approximately 170,000,000 people on earth have mental retardation. That number is increasing...by the turn of the century it is estimated that that number will increase to 200 million people. But, fortunately, more and more persons of “normal” intelligence are working, through Special Olympics, to help all those people with mental retardation.

Fifth: Special Olympics includes and encourages entire family participation and in many cases, friends, neighbors, and the whole community to join in our efforts.

Sixth: Special Olympics operates hour-by-hour, day-by-day, month-by-month, and year-by-year, everywhere! The sun never sets on Special Olympics! When all of us are asleep tonight, somewhere in the world there will be athletes stretching and warming up for training sessions, for competitions, or even for Local or Area Games, or even National Games! And now Continental Games! This makes Special Olympics almost an hourly event, every 24 hours.

So, when I say Special Olympics is “uniting the world,” I mean that we are uniting people in a universal effort to provide continuous help to those most in need of our compassion, and our assistance! And, isn’t it almost a miracle that, with your involvement, executives, scientists, engineers, bio-physicists, accountants, lawyers — the most intelligent people in the world will be working to inspire and lead the least intelligent! That surely is something special!

Another example of the “special-ness” of our Movement were the first-ever Asia-Pacific Games held in Shanghai, China! Fifteen nations participated. Not only were the Games extraordinarily well-managed and fully supported by the Chinese Government, the Opening Ceremonies were witnessed by an approximate 121 million people throughout the People’s Republic of China via State-controlled TV!

Yan Mingfu, Vice Minister of Civil Affairs, said, “The Special Olympics Movement kindles the flames of life of handicapped people. It calls forth a yearning for the true, the good, and the beautiful! Pushed by the Movement, China has sent many sports teams of mentally (handicapped) people to participate in international Special Olympics sports competitions. They have demonstrated their unyielding will and indomitable spirit. It is sport, Special Olympics sport, that opens closed hearts, and makes people share and enjoy happy lives along with non-handicapped people!! No high-ranking official of any country has ever spoken more eloquently about Special Olympics than this Chinese official of a communist country!!! Thirty years ago, in 1968, when my wife, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, started Special Olympics with 1,200 athletes in Chicago, no one — not even her husband — would have predicted the unprecedented, worldwide success which Special Olympics has achieved. Often, I think that all of us together must be doing something blessed by God!

Just pause for 15 seconds.

Ask yourselves now what sports organization on earth has grown from 1,200 athletes in 1968, to 1,250,000 athletes in 1998! What other sports organization in history has achieved full-blown, Olympic status so quickly, and the right to use the very word, “Olympics,” in its official title? Only Special Olympics has been granted and achieved that status.

What sports organization now, or at any other time, has enrolled 1,062,164 volunteers in its work, in 143 countries? What other sports organization has unqualified endorsements of the leaders of the Communist China together with The Pope, John Paul II, in Rome? Of Nelson Mandela in Southernmost Africa, and the Eskimo Leader Augapak in the North Pole reaches of Alaska? The answer can only be Special Olympics!

Why does a six billion-dollar leader of American Business, like Ronald Perelman, help Special Olympics alongside the $5,000 dollar a year President of Sierra Leone?
What non-profit organization has been voted “The Most Credible Charity in America” by “The Chronicle of Philanthropy,” one of the largest, and most respected periodicals dedicated to the world of charity? The answer again can only be Special Olympics.
Now, let me ask you some questions, which relate specifically to your business interests —
What charity is now operational in practically every country where you do business, and will be in every country of the entire world by the year 2000?
What charity has the support of the highest government leaders everywhere?
What charity can link you closely with the business and political leaders of those countries?
What charity can increase your employee morale simply by inspiring them to be involved in their very own community?
What charity can give you the opportunity to do something together with your local employees?
What charity can reveal to your stockholders that yours is not only a successful company, but also one willing to give back to the local community where you are doing business and making money?!!

What charity can find a way for the most intelligent and least intelligent, to work together, in a phenomenal “generation of the human spirit?” The answer can only be Special Olympics!!

Why do big corporations get involved in Special Olympics? Some of them do so because it increases the bottom line, and meets their business objectives. Peter Stokes, Director of External Affairs for Coca-Cola Great Britain recently relayed to Coca-Cola President, Doug Ivester, Against the backdrop of the Company’s special relationship globally with Special Olympics and the very real difference the movement makes to the lives of so many individuals and their families, we have been proud to provide support to Special Olympics UK for a number of years. Not only can working with Special Olympics be good for business and good for communities, but also it can be personally extremely rewarding and enriching for individuals lucky enough to be involved.

Other companies are involved with Special Olympics for different reasons.... take Otis Elevator. Who would have expected that an elevator company would sponsor an athletic program? I never did! But, thousands of Otis employees have given countless hours volunteering for Special Olympics as part of their “employee satisfaction initiative” called “Team Otis!”

In 1995, J.P. Van Rooy, President and CEO of the Otis Elevator Company, made a strong commitment to Special Olympics. He stated, “For companies, and for the shareholders of companies, workplace giving is becoming a requirement; but that misses the most important aspect, of our relationship with Special Olympics:

It misses the personal, individual commitment and involvement by our employees themselves!!”

Otis is one of the world’s global companies, with operations in all but a handful of nations. Annually, its 66,000 employees, representing virtually every race, creed and color, produce revenues of more than US $4.5 billion. It is the largest and most successful elevator company in the world. Yet this company was a perfect match for Special Olympics “because the reward for Otis has been in support of sponsoring friends, customers, and suppliers.” To quote the Mr. Van Rooy! To the astonishment of even the President of Otis, after their involvement in Special Olympics, an independent survey of more than 150 of the most recognized corporations in the world, recently found the ratings for Otis to be higher by 15% than ever in that company’s history. They have Team Otis programs in 40 countries!

To me, this is all impressive, but don’t think that because we have the great support of Team Otis, our job is done! We need all of you to join Special Olympics Team Advantage. But, why should you be involved?

I believe you will profit by being involved, first, because we are the only worldwide, comprehensive sports organization which rises above nationalism! We do not, thanks be to God, rank countries by the number of medals won by their athletes. We do not fly national flags or play national anthems. We do not send away a majority of our participants with no rewards at all, no medals, no citations, for their efforts. Special Olympics builds people up! We don’t knock anyone down! Special Olympics rewards human beings, not nations! We recognize that we are all created by God as one humanity, but we must struggle to truly achieve one humanity, under God, with liberty and justice for all. That may be the greatest challenge and goal for the 21st Century — we are not, must not, become a Movement for power — not for political power, not for economic power, not for egocentric power!

Peace requires the simple but powerful recognition that what we have in common as human beings is more important and crucial than what divides us.
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Sargent Shriver
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