Photo By Heather Huber | Christopher Wilson, 6, pulls away during the assisted 25 meter walk, followed closely...... read more read more
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. – Students from across Fort Campbell schools gathered May 31, 2017, on the Fryar Stadium field to show off their champion spirits and to participate in the post’s first Special Olympics.
Usually students participate in the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System’s Special Olympics, but when the event was rained out earlier this year the Fort Campbell schools decided to host one instead. The theme for the day was “Spirit of a Champion.”
“It’s important for a number of reasons,” said Gary Gerstner, community superintendent. “First of all, it’s a celebration for our students. Anytime we can see them excel at things, and it’s not about running the fastest or throwing the farthest or jumping the highest, it’s about being a champion and playing and competing.”
It is important for adults to support the children outside of an academic setting, Gerstner said.
“It’s not just about reading, writing, arithmetic, it’s about other activities that go on,” he said. “This is a community effort. If you take a look around, we have athletes here, but we have the entire community supporting this endeavor.”
Although Gerstner’s job is now in administration, he is still a teacher so he likes interacting with students whenever he can.
“I know a lot of the kids by name, so there’s been hugs for me, and handshakes. I just ran a little hoop race with one of them,” he said. “It’s very natural for them to see me because I go into the classroom to see them.”
Johnathan Willis has been teaching moderate to severe disabled students at Marshall Elementary School for six years and has never missed a Special Olympics.
“Our kids have been practicing really hard to do it and they had a really great time today,” Willis said.
Participating not only builds confidence, but it helps the students understand they are capable of doing amazing things even though the world sometimes thinks they cannot, he said.
“It shows not only them that they’re capable, but others that they’re capable too, so I think it’s really important to be able to demonstrate that,” Willis said. He has been helping his students get ready for the past two months by setting aside part of their recess time to practice different events.
“We made our own little track outside, so they got to practice their running, they got to practice their softball throws, so they really enjoyed it,” Willis said.
Fort Campbell’s Special Olympics featured nine different events, including several races, long jumps and distance tossing events.
Mahaffey Middle School student Mark Sanchez-Flores, 13, excelled in the tennis and softball throws while Barsanti Elementary School student Chase Martin, 9 preferred the races.
“It’s been a pretty good day,” Mark said. “It’s just fun.”
Mark said he is playing baseball through the Taylor Youth Center Youth Sports program, and despite dominating in the throwing events he prefers batting over pitching.
Chase said he came out for the races. He also got his face painted black to look like a ninja because “it’s my favorite character.”
Several units from across post came out to help, including Soldiers from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, and both Air Force units at Fort Campbell, the 4th Detachment, 18th Weather Squadron and the 19th Air Support Operations Squadron.
“It’s exciting for both of our units to come together and support the event,” said Maj. Todd Blum, 4-18th WS. “The biggest thing was just making it a special day for the athletes. We’re all one big Family here on Fort Campbell and this is an extremely special day for the athletes and their Families, so we just wanted to come together and make it happen.”
Blum said he and his Family live on post and his daughters attend school here, so he tries to do as much as he can to participate in the community and expose students to what the Air Force weather squadron does at Fort Campbell.
“We love to get together and volunteer,” he said.
| Date Taken: | 06.01.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 06.02.2017 16:34 |
| Story ID: | 236206 |
| Location: | FORT CAMPBELL, KY, US |
| Web Views: | 60 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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