What's up! This past weekend the volunteers in Sorsogon took a very big step towards making our dream of having a Special Olympics event happen. 26 teachers from around Sorsogon Province came to the city to attend a two-day Coaches Training in which they learned how to prepare for their role as coaches in the event. The participants arrived representing the municipalities of Gubat, Bulan, Irosin, Bulusan and, of course, Sorsogon City. Three trainers from Special Olympics Philippines came all the way from Manila to facilitate!

 Over the course of two days, the coaches learned the basics about Intellectual Disabilities and how Special Olympics Philippines operates. The trainers from Special Olympics shared about their different chapters in the Philippines and about their success on the international level of competition!

 The training also provided a clearer picture for what the event in July will actually look like. There will be four events; soccer, badminton, athletics (track & field), and Young Athletes (simple activities for kids ages 2-8). Each municipality will have one coach for each activity. Our awesome friend and fellow Peace Corps Volunteer, Sarah, even volunteered to be a coach for Gubat! The coaches will recruit around 40 participants from each of their municipalities, and organize practices leading up to the event on July 25-26. 

 Day two was all about learning the basics of the sports:

Coach Darwin goes over the fundamentals of soccer

Coach Carol teaches badminton

Coach Christian leads track & field exercises

 National Director Kaye Samson arrived on the second day to talk about the Young Athletes program and watch as coaches from each municipality presented their plan to prepare for the Special Olympics event over the next two months. Each team expressed their passion and excitement as they presented, and we all felt really optimistic as we ended the training. The next two months will definitely be challenging, but the response we got from the coaches at the end of the training was more positive than we could have imagined. It gives us a lot of hope that, in the end, our event will be a success.

Giving out certificates with Kaye:

  Also, our grant for Special Olympics Sorsogon is now completely funded! If you donated anything these past couple months, we have to thank you from the bottom of our hearts. It's a huge weight off of our shoulders to have access to the grant fund and we are very excited to start using the funds to ensure a successful event! I will keep updating monthly as we get closer to the event. 

Maraming salamat po! This event could not be possible with you. Peace