Governor, Mr. Chairman, Dave Phillips, President Ken Lewis of Nations Bank, Dr. Leroy Walker, President of your and our 1999 World Games. My friend, Peter Ridder of “The Charlotte Observer”, Bob Tillman of Lowe’s Companies, “Smokey” Bissell of the Bissell Companies, Loren Steele of Coca-Cola Bottling, Joan Zimmerman of “Southern Shows”, “Cammie” Harris -- Ladies and Gentlemen:
On July 20, 1968, just about 30 years ago, the Special Olympics “Flame of Hope” was ignited for the very first time at our first World Games. Those first Games were held in Chicago where Eunice and I had lived and where our first children were born. Chicago had been our home.
One thousand young men and women with mental retardation from 26 States and Canada took part in that competition staged in the ways and procedures of traditional Olympics. Twelve of those Special Olympics athletes were from North Carolina!
Chicago was the place where they performed; Mayor Richard J. Daley of that city was the host.
The President of the Chicago Park District gave us Soldier Field free-of-charge, but instead of the normal attendance at big events there were roughly 100,000 people; we had only a few hundred spectators. But we did have John Glenn, Rafer Johnson, and Paul Hornig.
They realized and said it was an important event. They cheered our athletes on! Those famous athletes are still with us. They realized we had a new product for the world of sports. Mayor Daley, prescient politician that he was, said to my wife, Eunice, as they watched the competitions: -- “Eunice, the world will never be the same after these Games!”
Everyone in those days, except my wife, thought people with mental retardation could not achieve much of anything. No persons with mental retardation had ever competed in sports!! Our athletes were pioneers! They were the first generation of Special Olympics heroes. But, how about this: --
Today, the number of Special Olympics athletes participating in our programs around the world is 2,000 times that original number !!! North Carolina will host 6,500, maybe 7,000 of our Special Olympics athletes from around the world next year in the largest, most revolutionary sporting event this State has ever seen. “Revolutionary” because Special Olympics turns the world upside down!
We don’t have the wealthiest, the most beautiful, the sexiest people in the world. We have the bottom of the barrel!! But our athletes -- with I.Q.'s from 75 downward to 50 -- change us!! Instead of Phi Beta Kappa Keys, Special Olympics provides the Keys which open our eyes and hearts and brains to the capabilities and the humanity of all persons, -- including even those with mental retardation.
Even I, who has the greatest faith in my wife Eunice’s vision, ability, and tenacity -- could not have imagined the enormous miracle she set in motion when she founded Special Olympics. We now operate in 163 countries! More than one million athletes participate. In just 30 years we have become the largest private sports philanthropy in the world.
We continue to grow and grow and grow. By the year 2,001, the first year of the next Century, Special Olympics will probably have 2,000,000 athletes and probably 3,000,000 Volunteers.
We have had to change the organizational structure of our worldwide enterprise. For example, we have just created Special Olympics Europe-Eurasia, an entity with its own full-time staff and its own Board of Advisers. We have 50 European-Eurasian nations in that one entity!!! Those 50 European nations have never before been united in any enterprise!!! All of those countries in the old days with their famous and infamous leaders, -- Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, Attila the Hun, Hitler, Stalin, the Kaisers of Germany, the Czars of Russia, -- killed more people than the total population of the United States today. Now they are all united in the Special Olympics Movement! No military or political leader has ever accomplished that miracle with them!!!
We are not only changing the lives of the Special Olympics athletes, we are altering the lives, perceptions, and world views of everyone around them.
Whole populations of persons with mental retardation -- across North America, Latin America, Asia, Africa, Europe, -- for centuries have been told, “You are worthless,” “You cannot achieve,” “You are losers.” But we say to them: -- “You are valuable!” “You can achieve!” “You are winners.”
You need only hear from a few Special Olympics athletes and their family members to grasp the Movement’s ability to change lives. Edward Hunnicutt, who participates in our urban program in Dallas, Texas says: “I was headed down the wrong path, but now I am into a lot of great things and my “jump shot” gets better all the time.”
Brazilian athlete, Emilia de Souza Camargo, says simply: “Special Olympics has changed my life! All of the other girls say “hello” to me now, and ask me to play with them. I love Special Olympics because it has helped me become a part of everyone else’s world.” That is what the Special Olympics Miracle is about: - “Changing the World"…
Respected leaders from around the world recognize and hail the life affirming work of Special Olympics:
From Pope John Paul II in Rome to Prince Charles of England, from Czech President Vaclav Havel to President Salfaro of Italy, from the leaders of Egypt and Algeria and Israel and Jordan in the North to Nelson Mandela of South Africa; to the leaders of the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong-Kong, to all the countries of South Asia, South America, and the huge populations of China, India, Indonesia, and Russia, Special Olympics is officially approved.
There are Special Olympics programs in the Middle East -- in Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Palestine, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. More and more we are touching the lives of people who have not yet had access to all the myriad benefits Special Olympics offers. We are bypassing the barriers of race, gender, religion, and nationality. Together we are doing no less than creating a new global reality.
But -- (and there is always a “But”) -- while Special Olympics currently reaches more than one million athletes, there are 175 million people around the world with mental retardation!
Each one of the 175 million, rich and poor, young and old, deserves a chance at a more meaningful, fulfilling, and joyful life. Each one of the 175 million deserves Special Olympics. To reach out to these 175 million is our continuing mission, and one in which our present and future corporate sponsors play a vital role.
After all, even heroes of sports need heroes of business and commerce! Our Movement list of corporate heroes reads like a list of the world’s most successful and prestigious companies. You can see their names proudly waving on banners at our World Games and other events.
Coca-Cola, which along with Kodak is a founding sponsor of the Movement, has been a Special Olympics Worldwide sponsor for 30 years.
Proctor and Gamble, a marketing partner for almost 20 years, has helped educate millions of consumers about Special Olympics while raising millions of dollars through a yearly coupon-mailing promotion.
“Shopko” has raised over a million dollars in one day for Special Olympics annually through its Golf Tournament!
These valuable corporate sponsorships and many others clearly help Special Olympics continue to serve our athletes every day, every week. But the corporations also benefit greatly.
Simply put: corporate sponsorship of Special Olympics is good business. In a 1995 Gallop Poll on Special Olympics, 95% of those surveyed responded affirmatively to our name Special Olympics. “Yes, we know Special Olympics.” They say our movement is the “Most credible charity.” “Most favored charity,” and “top charity.” And, our sponsors report a wide range of bottom-line benefits -- from increased product sales, to strengthened customer and brand loyalty.
One sponsor, GMC truck dealers, recorded a 40% increase in sales during the month of our World Summer Games.
This is not surprising. If you have ever been to our World Summer Games, I do not need to tell you what a huge and awe-inspiring global event it is! But the 1995 World Summer Games in New Haven required 40,000 Volunteers, 8.65 acres of tents, 200,000 square feet of warehouse space, 20,000 hours of bus time to and from events, a Cessna airlift of 240 planes and, when it was over -- 40,000 40-gallon cans of garbage to clean up!! PAUSE
In Special Olympics there’s always work to do...some of it even dirty work! BUT unlike the Olympic Games now taking place in Nagano, Japan, where 85% of the athletes will walk away without a medal, everyone of our athletes comes away a jubilant winner with a medal or ribbon to show for his or her effort. Still -- some people may continue to wonder; why should we expend the time, funds, and energy for people with mental retardation; why help them? What is so special about Special Olympians?
I can only tell you what Eunice and I have learned over our many years working with Special Olympics athletes: --
They teach us compassion, for they love everyone.
They teach us delight, for they take joy in holding our hand, or just being with us.
They teach us determination, because they never give up -- as athletes or as people.
They teach us serenity, because they embody a happiness which comes from their total
absence of envy or hatred.
In truth, the reason we reach out to them is simple: “what we receive from Special Olympics athletes is astronomically greater than what we give them.”
