Unified’s Recognition by Special Olympics

By Ronak Dsouza

The first assembly of the second semester was a historic first as Legend was honored as a nationally recognized Special Olympics school. This recent achievement is thanks to the Unified program, consisting of both teachers and students, and partners. Partners are students who choose to help out with the Unified program acting as peers.

“It feels great to be a partner because we get to help the kids pursue their dreams of playing sports,” junior Haile Hock said.

Students involved as partners enjoy the experience.

“It’s definitely one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had in high school,” senior Sara Fox said. “You get to play sports with some of the best kids in the school and really learn what it means to be happy.”

The partnership aspect of the Unified program played a large part in the Special Olympics school recognition, however two leaders of the Unified program applied for the honor.

“The leaders of our Unified program, Jeremy Dorr and Karen Forbes, went through a really arduous application process,” senior Sara Fox said. “They had to talk and write to a lot of different people and organizations in order for the program to be nationally recognized.”

This makes the assembly the icing on the cake for the Unified program after all of the hard work put in to be recognized for their success.

“The assembly was really great because it felt good for the kids to be recognized for going above and beyond with their lives and extracurricular activities,” junior Haile Hock said.

The recognition assembly included a visit by former Bronco Steve Atwater and the Broncos mascot Miles as well as Special Olympics.