Have you ever heard of the partnership that the NCAA DIII schools hold with the Special Olympics? If you are an athlete, probably you have. If you are an outsider to athletics and the NCAA then most likely not. Athletics are not all about the athletes and their teams, especially if the NCAA has anything to say about it. The NCAA has a longstanding history of promoting athletes to be involved not only in their sports, but their community as well. If you were to go onto the NCAA website today, you can browse NCAA’s pages and find the partnership that each DI, DII and DIII school has. For Millikin as a DIII athletic school, the partnership we hold is with the Special
Olympics. Something even more special is that Millikin was partnered with the Special Olympics long before the NCAA made it the DIII partnership.

What makes the DIII athletic level special is the balance between athletics, service and academics. Coach Kerans was able to share her input that, “the partnership allows us to provide a quality experience for both athletes and the Special Olympic members. It is also important to provide the opportunity to Millikin student athletes and to the Special Olympic athletes here at Millikin.” Those opportunities are more than offered as the partnership with the Special Olympic’s is strong here at Millikin. So far, SAAC (student
athletic advisory council) on campus has had an opportunity to join the Special Olympic athletes at a dance almost every month to chaperone and the women’s soccer team held a day where the Special Olympic athletes were able to come out and enjoy a conference game.

These opportunities are ”designed to improve the lives of Special Olympic athletes through their involvement with Division III student-athletes and foster a mutual learning experience”. Also it is designed to, “Align with the Division III attribute of citizenship in
the division’s strategic-positioning platform” (NCAA Webinar). Here at Millikin, these processes are already laid out for the athletes, ready for them to take participation in during their career here at Millikin. It is a gratifying accomplishment to be able to work with the Special Olympic athletes and also it is a time to break away from the normal routine of life and lend a helping hand to those who really appreciate the social time.

Even though there is the opportunity to participate with the Special Olympian athletes, there is still a need to take the reigns and actually participate. They are always looking for more athletes to participate in their events and volunteer throughout the year. You
can even send in your stories and photographs to the NCAA to be used on Facebook, Champion Magazine and the Special Olympics web site. If you have participated and would like to submit your stories the following emails receive them, for links send to
[email protected] and for full text send to [email protected] as well. For Facebook, just share your link on the NCAA Division III page.