Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Finding Joy Through Challenge: Sarah Haines on the Impact of Special Olympics Texas | Non-profit Series

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Finding Joy Through Challenge: Sarah Haines on the Impact of Special Olympics Texas | Non-profit Series · The Inspired Stories Podcast

• 0:04
  Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
• 0:08
  where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
• 0:11
  their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
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  adversity. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi,
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  and today's guest is Sarah Haynes, Chief Administrative
• 0:20
  Officer and Regional Executive Director at Special Olympics
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  Texas, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing year
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  round sports training and competitions for children and
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  adults with intellectual disabilities.
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  Their main focus is to help these athletes develop physical
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  fitness, demonstrate courage, and find joy in everything they
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  do. Under Sarah's stewardship, the
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  organization continues to promote inclusion and
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  acceptance, supporting thousands of athletes across the state.
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  Sarah has an extensive background in leadership roles,
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  including serving as Senior Director of Connectivity at
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  Special Olympics Texas and Senior Director of Volunteers
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  and Competitions at Special Olympics Arizona.
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  She also held positions in operations and membership
• 1:07
  management, showing her commitment to fostering
• 1:10
  meaningful connections. Now before we get into all that
• 1:13
  good stuff, today's episode is brought to you by my company,
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  To find out if your group qualifies, contact us today at
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  AD back benefitsagency.com. Now back to our guest today, the
• 1:45
  Chief Admin Officer and regional Executive Director of Special
• 1:49
  Olympics Texas, Sarah Haynes. I appreciate you making the time
• 1:52
  to Share your story today. Thank you so much for having me.
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  OK, so Sarah, every story has an inspiring beginning.
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  Where does your start? How did you find yourself in the
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  Special Olympics world? So I had obviously heard of
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  Special Olympics but didn't have any real connection to it.
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  But I was very lucky to have a mentor in my life who became the
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  chief financial officer at Special Olympics Arizona.
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  And he called me up and said, Sarah, and I think you need to
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  be here. I think this is a place where
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  you can thrive. And I was quite happy where I
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  was. But you know, I, I trusted this
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  mentor. He, he really had my best
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  interest at heart and invited me to come join him at Special
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  Olympics in the finance department working in
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  accounting, which was not my strong suit.
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  But I immediately fell in love with the mission, the
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  opportunities, the athletes. And so, yeah, I'm so glad that I
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  I took that leap. So finance wasn't your
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  background. What was it?
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  Why did this mentor think, hey Sarah, come join us here in this
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  role that's not a good fit for you?
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  We'd worked together for, for many years.
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  I, I am very blessed to have been taught from a young age
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  about a great work ethic and when you commit to something,
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  committing fully. And so I think that that's what
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  he saw in me. I'm not an athlete, I'm not
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  physically gifted. So it didn't seem like, you
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  know, a lot of synergy between the the two, but the the beauty
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  of Special Olympics is that you just need to want to be a part
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  to be successful here. And so I think that's why I got
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  that invitation. And I really jumped at every
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  chance to be a part of what we were doing, regardless of
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  whether it fell into finance and accounting or not.
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  So for those who are unfamiliar, explain what is Special Olympic?
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  What's it about? What takes place?
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  So Special Olympics was created by Eunice Kennedy Shriver,
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  really to honor her sister who had an intellectual disability.
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  And so when it started, essentially it was at the
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  Kennedy compound, she invited people with intellectual
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  disabilities to her home and they played sports.
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  And so from there, it has grown to a global movement that
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  invites individuals with intellectual disabilities to
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  grow, learn, make friends through the platform of sport.
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  And So what we do is provide training and competition in a
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  variety of sports for individuals with intellectual
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  intellectual disabilities. And those individuals without
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  intellectual disabilities come to support and be a part of
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  that. So you say it's a global
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  movement now. Is it kind of like the
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  traditional Olympics? Every four years there's a host
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  site somewhere around the world and everybody travels to that.
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  So Special Olympics again, global movement and then every
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  region of the globe has its own Special Olympics competition.
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  So to start from the from from the grassroots area, we have our
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  local competitions, athletes from a specific neighborhood or
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  city, they train and compete that they can move up to an area
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  competition, a larger part of their state.
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  From there they can move up to a state competition.
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  In Texas, we host for every year in a variety of sports, a Winter
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  Games, a Summer Games, a Fall Classic, and a basketball
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  competition. And then from there you can move
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  up to a USA Games, which is just the athletes from the United
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  States and that is done every four years.
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  And then from there you have the opportunity to compete
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  internationally and they do a Winter Games and then a Summer
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  Games and they alternate those every two years.
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  So, and those are obviously athletes from around the globe.
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  So when was the last big one in the US?
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  Where was it and when's the next one in in there?
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  So the last big one was in 2022 in Orlando, the USA Games,
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  Special Olympics, Texas. We were the second largest
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  delegation behind Florida. We were very proud of that.
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  And the next USA Games will be held in Minnesota in 2026.
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  And how about the global one? Where was that?
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  Where will the next one be? So the last Summer Games were in
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  Berlin in. Let's see if we're doing the
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  games this year. They were two years ago.
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  And then this year it will be the World Winter Games in
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  Torino, Italy, where Special Olympics Texas is sending a
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  female floor ball team. Floor ball What is floor ball?
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  So floor ball is very similar to floor hockey.
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  It's maybe a little less aggressive, played with smaller
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  sticks and doesn't require all of the safety gear.
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  It's a smaller rink, but it's very fast action paced game that
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  our athletes absolutely love and a fantastic opportunity again
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  for the ladies to get that opportunity to play team sports,
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  which is a little unusual. And so we really are excited for
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  this team to go and represent the US in Italy.
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  Well, that's fun. Now Torino, Berlin are
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  traditionally like, are the Special Olympics traditionally
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  held in locations that have previously held the main
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  Olympics or is that just sort of coincidence with those?
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  No. So obviously with Special
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  Olympics we expect the premier event venues that the
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  traditional Olympics expects and so very often we find ourselves
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  in those similar locations. But previous to Berlin, those
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  last World Summer Games were held in Abu Dhabi, which has not
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  seen a traditional Olympics. But their interest in bringing
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  Special Olympics to their country and to show off what was
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  what is available in Abu Dhabi was amazing.
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  So we go where the community is excited and interested to have
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  us. That makes sense.
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  OK, so who can participate in Special Olympics?
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  How is that determined? So traditionally when you think
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  of Special Olympics, obviously we talk about those athletes
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  with an intellectual disability. Now with an intellectual
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  disability, there oftentimes comes with a physical
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  disability, but their primary diagnosis needs to be 1 of an
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  intellectual disability. The standard of that really
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  differs per state. So it really just requires that
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  a doctor says, yes, this individual has an intellectual
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  disability. Within Special Olympics, we
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  start our athletes off with our Young athletes program at 2 1/2.
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  It is completely unified, which means that we accept anybody,
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  whether they have a intellectual disability or they don't.
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  And it's an opportunity to learn fine motor skills, how to
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  listen, how to take turns, how to be on a team team and how to
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  establish what interest in what sport these individuals may
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  have. From there, that's 2 1/2 to 7.
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  Then there is a little program called Under 8 Can't Wait.
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  And those are for those athletes 6-7, just, you know, 7 1/2 who
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  aren't quite ready to compete on a team at a competition.
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  And it's more of a training system.
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  Once you hit age 8, you are eligible to be an official
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  Special Olympics athlete. And then our athletes, we still
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  have athletes competing into their 70s and 80s, so there's no
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  end time to being an athlete with Special Olympics.
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  OK. Is there an opportunity for
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  neurotypical people to participate or that's not how
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  this is set up? Absolutely.
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  So when Special Olympics started, the, the joy was
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  bringing people who have been isolated, who were outside of
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  the community into being a part of a group to play with people
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  with their same abilities and, and their same interests.
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  And that was wonderful. But what that did was isolate
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  people. And Special Olympics started to
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  understand that our, our goal is not to isolate people with
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  intellectual disabilities. It's to bring the community the
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  awareness of people with disabilities and how much they
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  have to give to the community. So Special Olympics started
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  unified sports, and what that does is take individuals with
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  and without disabilities and places them together on the
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  playing field to play on. Any sport that we do can be
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  played unified, whether that's a golf pair, which is, you know, a
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  father and a son, or it could be a high school basketball team
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  with two unified partners, those without the disabilities and
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  three Special Olympics athletes playing together on that same
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  team. And you can imagine you're in
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  high school and you have a intellectual disability and
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  you're potentially isolated off in that special education
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  learning room. Maybe it's in the basement or
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  one of the portables Outback. But you get the opportunity to
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  play on your school team with your classmates, get to wear
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  your school colors in the uniform and ride the bus to
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  competitions and be a part of that school campus community.
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  It's one of the best of improvements that Special
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  Olympics has made in its programming in the over 50 years
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  that Special Olympics has been established.
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  When was that introduced? So we are actually in year 17 of
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  our is now called Unified Champion Schools.
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  And so that is taking this Special Olympics programming
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  straight into the schools. And not only is it the sports
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  programming that we just shared, but it also includes inclusive
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  youth leadership. So finding opportunities for
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  those students to be the leaders of their school campuses, in
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  their school clubs, the student councils and also whole school
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  engagement. How do we get the entire school
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  to be a part of of the unified movement?
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  And it's one of the, again, the most successful things that
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  we're seeing globally with Special Olympics.
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  So let's go back to a bit of your story, Sarah.
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  You started out in Arizona and finance, but you through your
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  explanation said you were, you know, trying to get involved in
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  all aspects of it. What was sort of the the the
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  path that eventually took you to Texas and where you are now?
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  So about a year into my time at Special Olympics Arizona, we got
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  a new CEO, Tim Martin, and he has really got a knack for
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  finding where people belong within the organization.
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  And so I used to go out to every opportunity, every event I
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  could, whether it was a track meet up in Lake Havasu or a golf
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  tournament down in Yuma. If there was something to do, I
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  my hand was raised, I want to be there.
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  And that's actually how Tim found me once was he showed up
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  at Yuma for this golf tournament and there I was and he's, what
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  are you doing here? Finance doesn't go to these
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  things and I was like, no, I love it, I love it.
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  So he gave me the opportunity to move into volunteer management,
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  which gave me the opportunity to go to every competition and to
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  learn the sports and understand how Special Olympics worked, how
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  the sports worked. Because again, I wasn't an
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  athlete, but I was very interested in how everything
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  moved along. And so from there, Tim then
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  said, you know what, I wanna give you state competitions.
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  I want you to run our state competitions and really took on
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  to that because again I got to go to everything because I got
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  to be a part. And then Tim got the opportunity
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  to become the CEO here in Texas. And the difference is Arizona
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  was in a great place, very well run program, but it is 1/3 the
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  size of Texas. The amount of athletes that we
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  had the ability to be a part of and help here in Texas that we
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  just, we're never going to be able to match that in Arizona.
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  And so that's how he lured me. He said, Sarah, there's so many
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  more athletes we can we can help.
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  And so I thought, you know, you're absolutely right and I'm
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  jump into it. And that moved to Texas in 2018.
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  Wow. What is it that drew you into
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  this so much? What is it that you get so much
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  joy from? So I could take it back to my
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  first competition that I went to, and it was a swimming
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  competition. And what I saw just blew me
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  away. So our athletes come in every
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  age, size, shape, and they're walking around this venue in
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  their swimsuits. You know, we had one athlete, I
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  remember Clinton, who needed suspenders to hold his swimsuit
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  up. And so, but he's proudly walking
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  around this venue. Nobody was wearing cover ups.
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  Nobody was shy or, or or embarrassed or ashamed of the
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  way they looked. And the athletes would run up
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  and they'd, you know, look at what I won and they'd want to
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  show you the medal. You've got to come see me swim.
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  And I was new. They didn't know who I was, but
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  they took to me so quickly. And I thought this, this, this
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  is included, this is somebody who is accepting of me.
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  This is a group that wants me here because I want to be here.
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  And I from that moment just fell in love with the feeling that
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  you get from being included in a joyous group of people.
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  And so I, I'm, I'm addicted to that feeling.
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  Where does the funding for all this come from?
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  So Special Olympics gets all of its funding from the community.
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  We do not charge our athletes to train and compete.
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  So unlike other youth sports and and club sports where parents
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  are shelling out thousands of dollars, our athletes are able
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  to sign up and train and compete for free.
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  In order for that to happen, for equipment, for uniforms, for the
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  cost of venues, all of that comes from donations, whether
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  that's corporate sponsors, individuals.
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  Our largest donors to Special Olympics globally is the law
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  enforcement torch run. Law enforcement has adopted
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  Special Olympics as one of its charities of choice.
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  They go out and fundraise, you know, millions of dollars every
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  year to help support the cost to provide this training and these
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  competitions for our athletes. Tell me more about what is the
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  torch run. So the torch run started
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  actually in Kansas. Chief Robert Lemunian got the
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  opportunity, got a call from Special Olympics Kansas.
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  Do you want to come out and put some medals on some athletes?
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  And he said, sure, why not? Came out there.
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  And like me, he fell in love with it.
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  He saw the the joy of the athletes.
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  You know, giving medals is one of the best volunteer jobs at
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  Special Olympics. And after doing it for for one
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  games, he said, you know what, I think I can help him out.
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  So that first run, then he said just like the traditional
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  Olympics, they they get a torch, they light it.
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  Ran through town, raised about $300 and said, you know what we
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  can do better. And so from there it has grown.
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  And so officers spend all year doing different types of
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  fundraising for Special Olympics anywhere from serving food at
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  restaurants. And it's a tip a cop where
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  people are able to, to tip the officers for, for serving the
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  food cop on top where they sit on donut shops and, and lower a
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  little basket and collect money selling T-shirts, all sorts of
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  fundraisers, the polar plunges that you hear about all run by
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  law enforcement, torch run. And then just leading up into
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  our Summer Games, officers from around the state will run the
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  torch through their cities and then into our opening ceremonies
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  at Summer Games and light the cauldron with our athletes.
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  And so it's, it's really one of the most amazing moments in
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  sports for me. And they are our our great
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  volunteer base and fundraising base for us.
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  So does each state organize sort of their own fundraising then?
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  And this torch run is happening in many most states.
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  Absolutely. So each Special Olympics, each
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  state is its own Special Olympics.
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  Essentially, other than California, they are Northern
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  California and Southern California cuz they couldn't
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  really get along. And so each state then does its
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  own fundraising. We get so much support from
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  Special Olympics International with ideas and support with
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  fundraising like the Polar plunge.
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  We just did one up near Fort Cavasos in Killeen, TX and
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  Special Olympics International came and helped us out at the
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  Armed Services YMCA for that polar plunge.
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  So we all get a lot of support. Law enforcement, they travel to
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  different conferences to learn how they can better support
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  Special Olympics. They act as unified partners
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  with our athletes in different sports and some act as coaches
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  and create teams so that our athletes have somebody to
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  participate with. So I want to get a better idea,
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  Sarah, of what the Chief Administrative Officer does.
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  Can you maybe give us an example of a strategy that you
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  introduced that significantly impacted the operations there at
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  Special Olympics Texas? Sure.
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  So Chief Administrative officer, I don't want to say is a
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  glorified HR, but it's a big part of what I do.
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  One of the things that I love best about Special Olympics is
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  the opportunities that I've gotten as an individual to grow,
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  to learn to become a Better Business person, to learn how
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  to, to fundraise, all the things that that make you a valuable
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  member of a of a organization. And I really want to translate
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  that into encouraging and bringing in new staff to learn
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  to get those same opportunities that I did.
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  So one of the things that we're developing and have developed is
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  our professional development within Special Olympics, the
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  opportunities to learn the different aspects of Special
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  Olympics. I got to start in finance, moved
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  into volunteers. Most folks, they have an
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  interest in sports. They start as a program
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  director, but how do they learn how to budget?
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  How do they learn how to recruit volunteers?
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  And so establishing A mentorship system within Special Olympics
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  so that the staff can learn from each other to learn and grow.
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  So that when I retire, there's somebody who's come up behind me
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  who's as excited about the opportunities at Special
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  Olympics as I am. So that's something that I'm
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  really very passionate about. So aside from the professional
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  development internally that you offer there, what other
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  strategies have you tried and found success with to recruit
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  good folks to join you and then you know once they're there to
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  hold on to them? The thing that with Special
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  Olympics is that there is no real good correlation of what
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  you do at Special Olympics to a job somewhere else.
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  It feels very unique to us. And one of the things that I'm
• 22:11
  really proud about here in Texas is that the understanding that
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  this is not an 8:00 to 5:00 Monday through Friday job.
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  We work when other people recreate.
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  And so being flexible, understanding that we need to be
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  available when our athletes are available and giving our staff
• 22:30
  the opportunities to work when and where they work best.
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  COVID, of course, you know, forced everybody to work from
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  home. And we learned a lot of
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  different techniques at Special Olympics to stay connected to
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  our athletes, stay connected to each other, stay connected to
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  our volunteers and our donors. And so encouraging that type of
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  creativity and independence and flexibility really allows for
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  staff to do Special Olympics, manage Special Olympics the way
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  that they see it. And it's allowed us to get a lot
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  of different views on how Special Olympics works best.
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  And I think that type of free thinking has grown.
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  Special Olympics, It's we're not so structured that it has to be
• 23:16
  done this way. We learn the creativity of
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  adaptive recreation. We do adaptive work here at
• 23:22
  Special Olympics Texas. What does that mean?
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  Adaptive. It means finding the solutions,
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  finding a way to say yes, if you've got an athlete that can't
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  climb down the ladder in the pool, what are, what access
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  points do we have? We've got athletes who have
• 23:39
  vision impairments but they want to play bocce.
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  I don't know if you're familiar with bocce, but it's Italian
• 23:44
  lawn bowling. And so be able to ring a bell
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  where the Polina is so that they have an idea of where to roll
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  their ball. It's all about being adaptive,
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  being ready to make changes that allow somebody to participate,
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  and that's what we do as as staff is find ways to open up
• 24:03
  Special Olympics to the greater community.
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  I like that how you gave that specific example and I'm
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  wondering if maybe there's a specific story that you can
• 24:13
  share about an athlete who you saw a particular breakthrough or
• 24:19
  or transformation to kind of highlight what Special Olympics
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  can you know do for folks? One of my just favorite stories
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  was 2018, excuse me, 2014 was going to the Special Olympics
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  USA Games in New Jersey. I got the opportunity to be one
• 24:41
  of the heads of delegation for the state of Arizona.
• 24:46
  So pleased. It was early on in in my career
• 24:49
  with Special Olympics and we were bringing around 47 athletes
• 24:54
  and coaches to New Jersey need to represent.
• 24:57
  And one of our track athletes was from a very small town in
• 25:01
  Arizona. They did not have a track that
• 25:07
  that you could compete on. It didn't have lines.
• 25:10
  He basically ran in the dirt. And so but he wanted to be in a
• 25:14
  track athlete. He applied, he got selected and
• 25:18
  he trained, but he trained in the dirt.
• 25:20
  And our goal was just so that he could stay in his lanes.
• 25:23
  That was that was all we wanted to do.
• 25:26
  We had, we didn't think he was going to win a medal, but we
• 25:29
  wanted as long as he doesn't get disqualified, we're good.
• 25:32
  And he went out there and ran his race, silver medal.
• 25:38
  I had very little to do with it. And I'm just weeping, weeping
• 25:42
  like a baby because here is somebody that that never thought
• 25:47
  they'd have this opportunity. And he was quiet, he was shy.
• 25:52
  And to see him get that silver medal and he strutted around New
• 25:55
  Jersey with this silver medal, he's so proud.
• 25:58
  And it just changed him in this travel of from being this quiet
• 26:05
  person to look what I did and to know that that just the the
• 26:12
  attention from his coaches, from myself, from his family, from
• 26:16
  his fellow athletes, to just get him to a place where he could
• 26:20
  succeed. And then he blew his, his arm,
• 26:23
  our all our hopes out of the water, just really succeeded.
• 26:27
  And that, that was one of the most amazing things that I've
• 26:29
  gotten to be a part of at Special Olympics.
• 26:32
  That's such a cool story. Are there ever opportunities to
• 26:36
  employ folks with intellectual disabilities within Special
• 26:40
  Olympics, or would that be maybe more of like a volunteer
• 26:44
  opportunity that would exist? No, absolutely.
• 26:46
  One of the things that Special Olympics is really known for is
• 26:52
  promoting opportunities for people with intellectual
• 26:54
  disabilities. Here in Texas, we have a Special
• 26:58
  Olympics athlete who works for us.
• 27:00
  His name is Bruce Clark. He is our athlete engagement
• 27:03
  manager. His focus has always been
• 27:07
  athlete employment and he's taken opportunities to train
• 27:12
  athletes on how to write a resume, how to interview.
• 27:15
  He's worked with companies to provide interview opportunities
• 27:20
  and experience with that feedback.
• 27:22
  That's that says this is this is what you should wear when you
• 27:25
  get asked this question, how would you like to respond?
• 27:29
  And so he's really focused on seeing more opportunities like
• 27:32
  himself so often. And there's nothing wrong with
• 27:35
  some of these opportunities, but so often we see people with
• 27:38
  intellectual disabilities being janitors or or baggers at the
• 27:43
  grocery store. And those are wonderful
• 27:44
  opportunities to get out and to earn a living.
• 27:48
  But what we always say at Texas is we want real good, not feel
• 27:51
  good. And so it's finding those, what
• 27:54
  is your potential? Where can you go?
• 27:56
  What do you want to do? When I first met Bruce, he was
• 28:00
  very quiet. He didn't like the way his voice
• 28:02
  sounded. And so he asked if he could not
• 28:05
  talk on the phone. And our CEO Tim Martin said your
• 28:09
  only job is going to be calling donors and them for their time
• 28:12
  at Special Olympics because you will get used to speaking.
• 28:15
  And now Bruce talks all the time.
• 28:18
  There is no getting over Bruce sharing his story.
• 28:22
  He is. He's given speeches in front of
• 28:26
  1200 individuals. He goes into penitentiaries and
• 28:31
  prisons and shares his story with the inmates there as part
• 28:35
  of the law enforcement torch run.
• 28:36
  And seeing what I mean, given that opportunity has done for
• 28:41
  Bruce, encourages the rest of us to see that our athletes have
• 28:46
  potential, that we just need to give them the opportunity to
• 28:49
  show us what they want to do. Can you maybe give us some more
• 28:52
  specific examples like Bruce there where I don't know, like
• 28:57
  because I think we could all kind of use a little broadening
• 29:00
  of our horizons here. What are some job opportunities
• 29:03
  that could be a good fit for some of the athletes?
• 29:07
  So a lot of our athletes with autism, they find repetitive
• 29:11
  actions to be feels good. They know what you know, Once
• 29:15
  they are shown what to do, they are very happy with being a part
• 29:19
  of that process and doing those things.
• 29:21
  So working at restaurants can be very helpful for people with
• 29:26
  intellectual disabilities. They will come every day.
• 29:29
  They will do exactly what they're asked to do, whether
• 29:32
  that's stocking shelves, cleaning the the restaurants,
• 29:37
  working with the cooks in the back, given tasks that they are
• 29:42
  shown how to do, the patience of the individuals around us to
• 29:46
  recognize that just like you and I would ask for help or ask
• 29:50
  somebody, do you need help? Knowing that those people with
• 29:53
  intellectuals with disabilities, they need us to ask them if they
• 29:56
  need help, not to assume that they do.
• 29:59
  That's a really great place for folks to work.
• 30:02
  One of our partners here in Texas, they work with people
• 30:07
  with disabilities getting contracts on military bases.
• 30:12
  There are a lot of work on bases that can be done with minimal
• 30:18
  supervision, with minimal training and so finding just
• 30:22
  opportunities for the athletes to know what they want to do and
• 30:27
  then getting that chance. One of our other partners is
• 30:30
  Dell and they do amazing things with the technology that and how
• 30:36
  do they adapt what they provide the tools that they have so that
• 30:40
  individuals with disabilities can utilize the technology that
• 30:44
  you and I take for granted. Whether that has to do with
• 30:48
  special buttons on the back of a of a computer so that you can
• 30:52
  tell what cord goes where, the frame speed on a computer so
• 30:57
  that it can't trigger an epileptic seizure.
• 31:00
  There really is some amazing things that companies are doing
• 31:05
  to support the opportunities of people with disabilities.
• 31:09
  And so really it's just again, finding out what is your
• 31:12
  interest, what do you want to do, and then how do I get you to
• 31:16
  be there? My wife works as a speech
• 31:19
  therapist for preschoolers, kindergarteners here in local
• 31:23
  school district. And she is so excited the last
• 31:26
  few years about these devices that they've been able to get a
• 31:30
  number of their students who are non verbal to be able to, you
• 31:36
  know, kind of type in words or find symbols that help to
• 31:40
  communicate their thoughts and fields.
• 31:42
  Is this the kind of thing that you're talking about?
• 31:44
  Absolutely. And I go back to that keyword of
• 31:47
  adaptive. It's not just Special Olympics.
• 31:50
  I see that the world at large is learning that we can make small
• 31:56
  changes that allow others to be a part of what we're doing.
• 32:01
  And so finding ways to help those who can't communicate in a
• 32:06
  traditional way communicate with us.
• 32:08
  Finding ways for people who can't compete in a traditional
• 32:12
  team, maybe because they've got some behavior issues or sensory
• 32:17
  issues. Finding ways to say yes, you can
• 32:20
  be a part of Special Olympics. Finding a way to say yes, I
• 32:23
  think is one of the most important things that we can do
• 32:25
  as a society when it relates to people with disabilities.
• 32:30
  Since we're talking about tech, is there a particular tech tool,
• 32:35
  a piece of software or framework that is really helpful for you
• 32:39
  in doing your work? So we worked with Toyota
• 32:45
  recently at one of our Summer Games.
• 32:47
  They were developing a program that would allow individuals
• 32:53
  that needed extra assistance, almost like Uber but for
• 32:58
  volunteers for help. And so our athletes, if they
• 33:02
  were at 1 venue and needed to get to another venue, they could
• 33:08
  use their phone to send a message to a selected group of
• 33:13
  volunteers who were prepared to go and assist them with what
• 33:16
  they needed. And that was really intriguing
• 33:19
  for us to see because so often our athletes and our families,
• 33:24
  you know, they, they take on a lot.
• 33:26
  They have a, they have a lot of challenges.
• 33:29
  And so using this piece of technology with Toyota learning
• 33:33
  in a testing phase, how does this help if somebody's these
• 33:37
  have put up their tent and they're just two people and they
• 33:40
  need a couple others to come and help.
• 33:42
  And so we really like the opportunity to partner with
• 33:46
  emerging technologies to find out what they how they want to
• 33:50
  serve the population because we've got this great population
• 33:54
  that wants to learn and they want to help others get to where
• 33:58
  they are. So we're pretty fortunate that
• 34:00
  way. Sarah, you have reached a level
• 34:04
  of success in your career that I think many would aspire to.
• 34:07
  Can you share some key decisions or actions that have led to you
• 34:13
  obtaining this role? I think for me, I have always
• 34:20
  been worried about failing. That's, you know, I, I've always
• 34:27
  wanted to be successful. I was one of these kids that in
• 34:30
  school that got straight A's and, and, you know, if I didn't
• 34:33
  get an A, something wasn't right.
• 34:35
  So it, I often times only took on those challenges I knew I
• 34:39
  could succeed at. And what I learned at Special
• 34:42
  Olympics is that is, that's not the path to true success.
• 34:49
  And so I, I really took the opportunity here at Special
• 34:52
  Olympics to say, I'm going to try it out.
• 34:56
  Maybe I'm great at it, maybe I'm not, but I'm going to get an
• 34:59
  opportunity to learn. And I had the, the, the luck of
• 35:03
  working with some great mentors. And like I said, our CEO, Tim
• 35:07
  Martin, he has always had such great faith in his staff.
• 35:12
  And so if we come up with a crazy idea, he says, great, go
• 35:16
  for it. Let me know how it goes.
• 35:19
  Failure is always an option as long as you learn from it.
• 35:23
  And so really just being willing to take chances to recognize
• 35:28
  that I may not be great at this now, but I won't know unless I
• 35:33
  try. I won't know unless I get the
• 35:36
  help from other folks how to do something.
• 35:38
  And so I really take that on whenever I look at a challenge
• 35:42
  and think, oh, oh, I can't do that.
• 35:44
  It's, you know, what if somebody has faith in me that I can,
• 35:48
  maybe I can. And I like to take that same
• 35:52
  attitude when I work with, with the staff that that report to me
• 35:55
  is, you know, hear what they want to do, get them excited and
• 35:59
  then let them do it. And then see, see where it comes
• 36:03
  from. That more often than not, we
• 36:06
  start to see success as we build our confidence and confidence in
• 36:09
  that, in your your belief that you can do it is, is really, I
• 36:13
  think the key to success. I love this.
• 36:16
  You know, one of the things that I often remind myself of and try
• 36:19
  to teach my kids is that life is not meant to be a spectator
• 36:24
  sport. Get in the game.
• 36:26
  And I think this is sort of a neat metaphor with, you know,
• 36:29
  you being in charge of Special Olympics Texas.
• 36:32
  And you know, you're what you just shared with us there and
• 36:35
  your answer, which basically the same, the thought process is, I
• 36:41
  don't know if I could do this, but I'm not going to know unless
• 36:43
  I get in there and I try it like let's let's get in.
• 36:46
  I want to be part of the game. Yeah, I one of the the biggest
• 36:51
  parts of Special Olympics are the victory dances.
• 36:55
  Some athletes, This is why they come to competition.
• 36:58
  So after the competition is over, everybody gets together,
• 37:01
  we play music and everybody dances.
• 37:03
  And I used to remember those junior high dances where you had
• 37:07
  boys on one side and girls on the other and and nobody ever
• 37:10
  met together. And my first experience at a
• 37:13
  Special Olympics dance was everybody was dancing.
• 37:17
  And if you were off to the side, somebody pulled you in and they
• 37:21
  seemed to know every new dance they had all the steps down and
• 37:26
  they were so excited to just so joyful to be alive and to be a
• 37:31
  part of what they were doing and, and pulling you in.
• 37:34
  And so I always find that that thought of, you know, well, I
• 37:37
  can't dance or I, you know, I'm not comfortable with this or I'm
• 37:40
  not sure I can do it. And seeing, you know, athletes
• 37:44
  say, Hey, come here, come dance with me and pulling you in and
• 37:47
  encouraging you to try to not care what people think, not care
• 37:51
  if people are looking at you just to try just to be a part.
• 37:56
  And that has made such a difference in my life as is just
• 38:00
  to try. Have you ever found the need to
• 38:04
  encourage more participation from the athletes?
• 38:09
  Is there a time where maybe they're resistant to get
• 38:12
  involved? Absolutely.
• 38:15
  One of the things that have gotten to do is to partner with
• 38:19
  other organizations. And we were looking for some
• 38:22
  fundraising opportunities in order to travel to USA Games in
• 38:27
  New Jersey and came across the Highland Games.
• 38:30
  If you're familiar, that's where they wear the kilts and they,
• 38:33
  they throw the caber, the big telephone poles and, and the,
• 38:37
  the hammers and, and, and all of that.
• 38:39
  And they invited our Special Olympics team come out and
• 38:45
  participate in the Highland Games.
• 38:46
  And so I brought some of our athletes out and there was a
• 38:50
  young lady, she was one of our swimmers and she very small,
• 38:55
  petite, she little dainty little Princess girl.
• 39:00
  And one of the Highland athletes was, was a lady in her kilt.
• 39:06
  Let's throw this caber. And our athlete, Christie said,
• 39:10
  I can't do that. I can't do.
• 39:11
  Look at how big that is. I, I can't do that.
• 39:13
  And this Highland athlete said, people said I couldn't do it
• 39:18
  because I was a woman, but I do it.
• 39:20
  So let's get this going and the encouragement to try something
• 39:24
  new. And this this tiny 5 foot
• 39:27
  nothing athlete got in there, grabbed the caver and and gave
• 39:31
  it a heave. And I looked at that and said
• 39:33
  look at what she's doing. I mean, look, the accomplishment
• 39:37
  of this. And so, yeah, sometimes, you
• 39:40
  know, we need to be reminded that what looks to be too big
• 39:43
  for us, if we take it with the encouragement of others, becomes
• 39:48
  just the right size. And so I try to remember when I
• 39:52
  think something like, Nope, Nope, that's above and beyond
• 39:55
  me, that again, if somebody's encouraging me to do it, I'm
• 40:00
  willing to give it a shot. And so you really need those
• 40:03
  positive people around you to be successful.
• 40:06
  And that that's really what the things like this have taught me.
• 40:09
  I love that example. How heavy are these things that
• 40:12
  this little 5 foot woman was? So she got one of the smaller
• 40:16
  cavers, but yeah, they're over a couple £100.
• 40:19
  But if what you learn the proper form to do it, then you know,
• 40:25
  really it's just a matter of having the heart to do it.
• 40:29
  And again, that's with the encouragement of the folks
• 40:31
  around you. And the kilt doesn't hurt
• 40:33
  either. And so they gave us some kilts
• 40:34
  to to wear that. That does seem to make a
• 40:37
  difference. Yeah, you got to get in
• 40:38
  character. You got to do the whole thing.
• 40:41
  What role do volunteers play in Special Olympics?
• 40:44
  That is a great question because they play the biggest role.
• 40:48
  The things that folks seem to misunderstand about Special
• 40:52
  Olympics is that all of the coaches that you see out at
• 40:55
  competitions, that you hear about training these athletes,
• 40:59
  they are all volunteers. We do not pay anybody to coach
• 41:04
  at Special Olympics. These are all folks that are
• 41:07
  coming from the community that see a need that's that want to
• 41:11
  help these athletes, whether they're family members, law
• 41:14
  enforcement, teachers at the school, they all come in and
• 41:19
  support these athletes 365 days a year.
• 41:23
  They're they really are amazing what these coaches coaches are
• 41:27
  willing to do because they very often have full time jobs
• 41:32
  elsewhere. We utilize a little over 50,000
• 41:36
  volunteers every year here in the state of Texas, whether
• 41:40
  that's a coach, a chaperone, a driver, or that's somebody
• 41:44
  that's helping us put on the the competition so members of the
• 41:48
  community can come out and volunteer to be a timer, a
• 41:51
  scorekeeper, an awards presenter, which like I said, is
• 41:54
  always the best. Without volunteers, Special
• 41:58
  Olympics wouldn't be able to do anything that it does.
• 42:01
  Does everyone get an award? No, that's another key thing.
• 42:06
  And I've seen this. There was ATV show about some
• 42:11
  singing high schoolers and they made a joke at one point about
• 42:14
  what Special Olympics everybody gets a gold medal.
• 42:17
  And that tends to be the biggest surprise for volunteers when
• 42:22
  they come to Special Olympics is that this is true competition.
• 42:27
  You come out, you train for 8 to 10 weeks in your sport, you
• 42:30
  compete and you maybe you win gold, that's great.
• 42:34
  Or maybe you got an eighth place ribbon, or maybe you get
• 42:37
  disqualified because you didn't do the stroke correctly in a
• 42:40
  swim. We treat these athletes like
• 42:43
  athletes and that means respecting the hard work they've
• 42:45
  put in. It's not about here everybody
• 42:48
  gets a medal. It's about everybody gets an
• 42:50
  opportunity to compete and that's what's unique with
• 42:53
  Special Olympics is that unlike the traditional Olympics, when
• 42:57
  you think of say the 100m brush stroke and that you have all of
• 43:02
  these prelims and semi finals and then the finals and then you
• 43:05
  have one winner who's the fastest at that stroke.
• 43:08
  At Special Olympics we heat and division by age, gender and
• 43:13
  ability. And so with the 100m brush
• 43:15
  stroke, we might have 20 heats of that particular stroke at
• 43:20
  that particular distance, and each of those heats is going to
• 43:24
  have a gold medal winner, a silver, a bronze.
• 43:27
  We try to heat to 8 places. And so everybody has that
• 43:31
  opportunity to be successful, regardless of their age, their
• 43:35
  gender or their ability. But also you have the
• 43:38
  opportunity to not win. And that's a life lesson.
• 43:41
  That's what sports teaches all of us, regardless of our
• 43:45
  intellectual abilities. Do you find that when an athlete
• 43:51
  does not get a medal, maybe gets that 8th place ribbon or maybe
• 43:57
  gets disqualified because they didn't, you know, do the stroke
• 44:00
  correctly? Is is their emotional reaction
• 44:05
  to like a bigger one than it might?
• 44:08
  Like, I don't like to lose. Like I've got a neurotypical son
• 44:12
  who plays competitive sports and he doesn't like to lose and
• 44:17
  there are like big feelings to deal with.
• 44:20
  Do you find that it's an even bigger emotion that comes out
• 44:25
  from the experience, or are folks generally happy to have
• 44:28
  had the experience? Paint me a picture because I I
• 44:32
  haven't had the privilege to to attend the Special Olympics
• 44:34
  before. So I think the the common
• 44:37
  misconception is that these folks are all happy and it's all
• 44:41
  great sportsmanship. And they are cheering on each
• 44:45
  other the entire time. And yes, that absolutely
• 44:48
  happens. But these are also competitors
• 44:51
  and they know what they want. They've trained to be
• 44:54
  successful. And when they don't win, they
• 45:00
  have the opportunity like the rest of us to to be brave in the
• 45:05
  attempt, as this, as the athlete oath states, and applaud the the
• 45:09
  the winner of the gold medal and to say, you know, I'm going to
• 45:13
  do better next time I learn something from this.
• 45:15
  They also have the opportunity to RIP that ribbon right off
• 45:18
  their neck, throw it on the ground, stomp on it because
• 45:22
  that's not what they wanted it. It's just like they're human
• 45:27
  beings just like the rest of us. Some can take defeat gracefully
• 45:31
  and some are highly competitive and it's just not acceptable to
• 45:35
  not have won. And that's the beauty of sport
• 45:39
  is that you get your your triumphs that that teach you
• 45:43
  things, but you get your defeats that teach you something as
• 45:46
  well. And our athletes are just the
• 45:48
  same way. Do volunteers receive any sort
• 45:52
  of training for, I don't know how to help console in
• 45:56
  situations like that? Or are you just sort of drawing
• 45:59
  on like, your experience of being a human being, you know?
• 46:03
  That's exactly it. One of the things that I've had
• 46:06
  the opportunity to do, one of my, again, my favorite places to
• 46:08
  volunteer and work at competitions is at awards.
• 46:13
  Most people are mostly happy at awards.
• 46:15
  You get to see some of the biggest smiles and you get to
• 46:18
  see the pride regardless of the place of the athlete, the pride
• 46:22
  on their families faces. And we use a lot of law
• 46:25
  enforcement in our awards areas. The athletes are very proud to
• 46:29
  have an an officer in full uniform present their award to
• 46:33
  them. And I find the officers very
• 46:37
  much know and can connect with these athletes.
• 46:40
  So when somebody is unhappy about the place that they got,
• 46:44
  I've witnessed officers from every type of agency be able to
• 46:49
  pull that athlete aside and talk to them about sometimes you win.
• 46:54
  Did you try your hardest? Did you have fun?
• 46:57
  Will you try again next time? And when you get those yeses and
• 47:01
  you get that positive reinforcement, we find that that
• 47:04
  the the athletes tend to understand and, and are able to
• 47:08
  ready to go on to the next, unlike traditional athletes who
• 47:13
  focus on one sport and that's where they excel.
• 47:16
  Many of our athletes compete in nearly every sport the Special
• 47:20
  Olympics offers because they're competing year round.
• 47:22
  So they may start in swimming in the fall and move on to bowling
• 47:27
  and then they'll play volleyball, cycling and track
• 47:30
  and field. So they do it all.
• 47:32
  They can't afford to be stuck on that one loss because they've
• 47:37
  got the next competition to look forward to.
• 47:39
  So they they have the short memories that are necessary for
• 47:44
  athletes, right? I like that.
• 47:48
  What's the best way to attract more volunteers?
• 47:51
  What have you found to be most effective?
• 47:53
  So getting the information out there, sharing what we can do.
• 47:57
  People don't volunteer because they haven't been asked.
• 48:02
  We find that getting the information out, letting people
• 48:05
  know how they can be a part of the competition, it's not
• 48:09
  overwhelming because our competition are they typically
• 48:13
  last a day. Our volunteer shifts, shifts
• 48:16
  last anywhere from 4:00 to 6:00 hours.
• 48:19
  We find lots of people sign up for multiple shifts so they can
• 48:22
  stay the whole day. But you get that opportunity to
• 48:25
  come out, learn the sport, learn what what type of volunteering
• 48:29
  you'll be doing. And then you get in there and
• 48:31
  you're doing it. And as I usually share with our
• 48:34
  volunteers, the athletes know this sport.
• 48:37
  They'll help you if you're not sure of an answer, they'll tell
• 48:40
  you what you need to know. So we are able to bring in, like
• 48:45
  I said, thousands of volunteers who don't need prior training to
• 48:50
  come in and help being starters on the track or help with
• 48:55
  hydration. Things that are, that are really
• 48:57
  simple with our coaches and those individuals who spend more
• 49:02
  direct one-on-one time with our athletes.
• 49:05
  We really look for individuals who know the sport.
• 49:08
  They go through coaches trainings, they get certified,
• 49:11
  we do concussion training. We do protect behaviors, all the
• 49:14
  things to protect a vulnerable population.
• 49:17
  And these, these folks are just masters at the sport that they
• 49:21
  do. And they often are certified in
• 49:24
  multiple sports because again, there are athletes not just
• 49:27
  doing swimming, they're doing swimming and flag football and
• 49:30
  basketball and golf. So they've got to learn multiple
• 49:33
  sports. Let me ask you a personal
• 49:36
  parenting question. This is something that came up
• 49:39
  maybe within the past year. I've got two boys who are ages 8
• 49:43
  and 10 and they have a cousin with Down syndrome that they
• 49:48
  hadn't seen for years because of COVID.
• 49:52
  So they didn't remember him. And we were all at a family
• 49:55
  wedding together. And their cousin is roughly the
• 49:58
  same age. I don't know, maybe a year or
• 50:00
  two older. And so they sort of, you know,
• 50:03
  found each other and started playing together.
• 50:05
  And, you know, at the next day when we were together, my wife
• 50:10
  asked my boys, you know, you guys were having fun playing
• 50:13
  with your cousin last night. Like, oh, yeah, he was great.
• 50:16
  He was funny. He made us laugh.
• 50:17
  And she was like, you know, did you notice anything different
• 50:21
  about him? And they're like, what do you
• 50:22
  mean? And she kind of left it at that
• 50:26
  because we weren't sure what to say or how to say it.
• 50:30
  Like maybe you can give some assistance here.
• 50:33
  Like what? What would be sort of the the
• 50:36
  right teaching thing to do there?
• 50:39
  Well, I think that it sounds like you guys handled it pretty
• 50:43
  well in terms of if the child doesn't ask, if the child
• 50:47
  doesn't say they're strange mommy or I don't know what's
• 50:51
  going on with them, that they just recognize them as an
• 50:54
  individual. And that's fantastic.
• 50:58
  But the the trick is to, I think, share the information
• 51:02
  openly. Be honest about what what the
• 51:06
  child is seeing. It doesn't serve to don't talk
• 51:09
  about that. Don't don't look at them because
• 51:11
  that's more isolating to the individual.
• 51:14
  If you have questions, go up and ask them what's going on I I
• 51:20
  noticed. That ask ask their cousin
• 51:22
  directly. Absolutely their cousin with
• 51:24
  Down syndrome. OK.
• 51:25
  Absolutely. How can we help them phrase the
• 51:28
  questions appropriately? It's, I think a lot about common
• 51:34
  courtesy. So you know, when you're playing
• 51:38
  a game and somebody is having difficulty learning the game or
• 51:43
  they're slower, instead of taking over and pulling the
• 51:46
  things from them so that you can help them.
• 51:49
  Can I help you with the game? Do you have any questions?
• 51:52
  Are we having fun? Get it, Encouraging them to find
• 51:55
  out where that person is at, where that individual, that
• 51:58
  cousin is at. What do you need from me to make
• 52:02
  this fun? To, to, to, to bring you into
• 52:05
  what we're doing? It's normalizing people with
• 52:09
  disabilities being a part of our community, and that's why I
• 52:12
  think Unified Sports is changing our culture in such a dynamic
• 52:17
  way. When I was in school and back in
• 52:20
  the 80s and 90s, if there were people with intellectual
• 52:23
  disabilities at my school, I never saw them.
• 52:26
  They must have been in a room somewhere else.
• 52:29
  They weren't a part of our school culture.
• 52:32
  And as I got up through the work environments, I didn't see a lot
• 52:37
  of people with disabilities. And so when I got to Special
• 52:40
  Olympics and saw individuals with disabilities, I was
• 52:44
  nervous. What am I going to say that's
• 52:46
  wrong? Am I going to embarrass myself?
• 52:49
  Maybe I'm just not engaged because I don't want to say or
• 52:52
  do the wrong thing. And through Unified Sports and
• 52:56
  getting these opportunities through schools to pair
• 53:00
  individuals with and without disabilities together on the
• 53:02
  same teams, it becomes normal. These are individuals in your
• 53:07
  community. And as you get older and you
• 53:09
  graduate from school and you get into the workforce, having
• 53:13
  somebody with a disability isn't uncomfortable.
• 53:16
  It's not unusual. Hey, that's just like Johnny.
• 53:19
  I used to play basketball with him.
• 53:20
  This is this is going to be great.
• 53:21
  I you know, we could have a lot of fun together.
• 53:24
  And so as this movement grows more and more businesses, more
• 53:30
  and more employees are going to be comfortable with people with
• 53:34
  disabilities. And that's what I think is the
• 53:36
  biggest thing that keeps people with disabilities from getting
• 53:38
  into the workforce isn't that they can't do the job, it's that
• 53:42
  a lot of folks in hiring positions and leadership are
• 53:45
  afraid to say and do the wrong thing.
• 53:47
  So it's just easier to not engage.
• 53:50
  And so we're trying to teach that you engage with these
• 53:53
  individuals the way you would anybody else.
• 53:56
  You're gonna say some wrong things and you're gonna get
• 53:59
  corrected and you're gonna learn.
• 54:00
  And when you learn, then you don't do it again.
• 54:04
  And so that's, that's the best thing I can say is just to, to
• 54:09
  get as much exposure and learn as much as you can.
• 54:12
  Because when it's not scary, it's not unknown, then it's
• 54:16
  commonplace and you're comfortable with it.
• 54:18
  Like that just, I mean, it's sort of like we were saying
• 54:21
  before, life isn't a spectator sport.
• 54:23
  Just get in there. Just do it.
• 54:24
  Exactly. Just just be a part of it and,
• 54:27
  and go with it. Yeah.
• 54:28
  And you're going to make mistakes and that's OK.
• 54:30
  If you go in with a good heart and good intentions, people are
• 54:33
  going to help you, right? Absolutely.
• 54:35
  I, you know, we found athletes that have difficulty expressing
• 54:39
  themselves, communicating and so mumbling their words or, or not
• 54:45
  being clear with their addiction.
• 54:46
  And how many times we had the tendency of just to smile and
• 54:50
  nod yes, yes. And not realizing what you're
• 54:53
  potentially saying yes to and learning that that can cause the
• 54:57
  frustration because you're trying to share what you're
• 54:59
  thinking and the other person isn't catching it.
• 55:02
  And so being willing to say, I'm sorry, I don't understand what
• 55:06
  you're saying. Can you say it slower or did you
• 55:10
  just mean this? Being willing to take the time
• 55:13
  to build that communication, it's more difficult.
• 55:17
  It can be embarrassing when you can't figure out what the other
• 55:19
  person's trying to communicate, but it's worth the time.
• 55:24
  What they have to say to you is worth your time and trying to
• 55:27
  figure it out and that. I think if you keep that in your
• 55:31
  mind, that they've put their energy into you, give it back.
• 55:36
  Learn what they want to tell you 'cause it's important to them.
• 55:40
  I think it just makes you a better person.
• 55:42
  Sorry, I want to shift gears here and I, you know, in my
• 55:46
  experience anyways, growth often times comes from the biggest
• 55:50
  challenges that we've faced in our lives.
• 55:53
  I'm curious to hear about a serious challenge that you've
• 55:56
  overcome. Maybe it's personal or
• 55:58
  professional or a combination of the two.
• 55:59
  What was that like and what did you learn going through that?
• 56:03
  So like a lot of folks, 2020 and, and COVID, you know, it,
• 56:09
  it, it was tough isolating, particularly in a, in an
• 56:14
  industry that was all about connection.
• 56:16
  It was all about being with the athletes and knowing that
• 56:19
  suddenly we, we couldn't be with each other.
• 56:23
  I found that to be very difficult and personally fell
• 56:27
  into rather deep depression that affected my ability to, to even
• 56:33
  function at work, losing interest in the things that were
• 56:37
  important to me because I just fell into this, this voice in my
• 56:43
  head telling me that things were bad and that I wasn't good
• 56:47
  enough. It was really hard.
• 56:51
  And the way that that I, I overcame that and I continue to
• 56:55
  overcome is by willing to be open to share what's going on.
• 57:01
  When it's dark, when it's scary, when you feel bad about
• 57:04
  yourself, it's easy to not want to tell anybody about that
• 57:07
  because I don't want anybody to know that I'm not great.
• 57:10
  You know, I feel like I've got to be on.
• 57:12
  I'm smiling, I'm happy. I'm, I'm, I'm, you know, this
• 57:14
  great successful business person.
• 57:17
  But inside I'm, I'm, I'm cringing.
• 57:19
  And it took being willing to say, you know, I'm not OK.
• 57:24
  I need help. And that was a big struggle.
• 57:29
  I have always been the helper. I managed volunteers.
• 57:33
  I want to help people and was very hard to accept the help
• 57:38
  myself, but had some some really great friends that shared, you
• 57:43
  know, Sarah, think about how the athletes you work with, how they
• 57:51
  ask for help. How do they interact?
• 57:53
  How do they get through those dark moments?
• 57:56
  And are you OK with saying you're not OK?
• 58:00
  Are you OK with saying, you know what, I'm just like you, I've
• 58:04
  got these ish let help me. And that was probably the
• 58:10
  biggest turning point was being willing to tell people, you know
• 58:14
  what, I'm not OK, I need help. And there are so many people in
• 58:21
  our lives who are prepared to drop everything and help you as
• 58:25
  soon as you let them know that that you're struggling.
• 58:27
  And I was very fortunate to, to find that in my life and, and
• 58:31
  through my work and our, our some athletes that shared why I
• 58:38
  was important to them, reminded me why this is what I want to
• 58:44
  do. And I started to get that spark
• 58:46
  of interest back in the things that I was doing.
• 58:49
  And then we started in person competitions again.
• 58:53
  And the reminder that the, the, the energy that you get from the
• 58:58
  positive people that you're around makes a difference.
• 59:01
  And so, yeah, sometimes I still get that I'm just not good
• 59:05
  enough. I, I, what am I doing?
• 59:06
  I'm letting everybody down. And then you get these
• 59:10
  opportunities to find people in your life who give you that,
• 59:15
  that, that push, that energy that, you know, thank you for
• 59:19
  being in my life. And it, it, it can change it for
• 59:22
  you. And and that's, that's, that's
• 59:24
  what I count on every day is, is the people around me to to help
• 59:29
  me the same way that I want to help them.
• 59:31
  I'm really glad that you shared this story, Sarah, because I
• 59:34
  think it's a really common experience for folks and they
• 59:36
  don't realize it because so few people talk about it.
• 59:40
  You know, when when we're struggling, I say we because we
• 59:43
  all go through it. We've all been through it.
• 59:45
  We've all been there. And the time where you need that
• 59:50
  human connection, where you need help the most, ironically, is
• 59:54
  the time where it's hardest to reach out and to ask for it.
• 59:57
  And so when you found yourself in this dark place, what was it?
• 1:00:02
  How did you take that first hard step?
• 1:00:05
  What did it look like? So that, and this is, as I look
• 1:00:11
  back, slightly cowardly way to take that first step, but I'm
• 1:00:14
  going to own it was to to e-mail my CEO.
• 1:00:19
  You know what? Hey, I'm struggling a little
• 1:00:21
  bit. I'll get it all back on track.
• 1:00:24
  Don't you worry, because that was my my, my go to is don't you
• 1:00:27
  where I've got this. And he responded immediately
• 1:00:31
  with you need to take a break. You need to find that joy again.
• 1:00:36
  Don't worry, we've got you. And I had a little breakdown
• 1:00:41
  because if I'm not doing this, what am I doing?
• 1:00:45
  But it was somebody who somebody who who I respect, somebody who
• 1:00:50
  I, who knows me, who I appreciate, who appreciates me.
• 1:00:55
  That said, let's take a break. Let's get you right.
• 1:00:59
  Don't keep trying to power through, stop and get yourself
• 1:01:03
  spend some time healing, spend some time getting yourself where
• 1:01:06
  you need to be because you're too important not to have
• 1:01:08
  around. And that that really made the
• 1:01:12
  difference was somebody calling me on my, my, my, my lies, my
• 1:01:19
  everything's good, my ACT absolutely.
• 1:01:22
  And and having that somebody willing to tell me the hard
• 1:01:26
  truths, you're not OK. And we can tell.
• 1:01:30
  And that's, that's a tough thing to hear and a tough thing to
• 1:01:34
  accept. But if you're not honest with
• 1:01:37
  yourself about where you are and where you want to be, then then
• 1:01:43
  it will all come falling apart. And so learning to be honest
• 1:01:46
  with myself and with those around me, that was the first
• 1:01:49
  step. Is is is just saying it getting
• 1:01:52
  getting it out. I think for a lot of people,
• 1:01:55
  part of the struggle is you don't even know what you're
• 1:01:57
  asking for. I'm hurting.
• 1:02:01
  I feel isolated. I feel alone.
• 1:02:02
  I This is a dark place for me. What do I do?
• 1:02:05
  Like what? What?
• 1:02:07
  OK, I, I, I reach out. I, I call you.
• 1:02:09
  What am I asking for, you know? It's.
• 1:02:12
  Did you fall into that? Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:02:15
  Because you people have a tendency to, when they hear I
• 1:02:19
  need help, let me fix it. And sometimes that help is just
• 1:02:24
  having somebody say, talk to me, tell me what's going on.
• 1:02:28
  Let me understand where you're at.
• 1:02:30
  Sometimes you just need to get it out.
• 1:02:32
  You don't want somebody to step in and say, here's what you need
• 1:02:35
  to do. You need somebody to say, let's
• 1:02:38
  hear what you have to say. Get it out.
• 1:02:41
  And that was the the beauty of of and it from such a surprising
• 1:02:46
  place. Honestly, you know, Aceo who's
• 1:02:49
  managing a business to stop and say tell me what's going on.
• 1:02:53
  I just want to hear it. He didn't try to fix it for me.
• 1:02:56
  He just wanted to hear where I was and give me the opportunity
• 1:03:00
  to figure out what I needed. And that's the, the key thing I
• 1:03:04
  think is, is finding those folks who are willing to not fix it
• 1:03:09
  for you, that just want to listen because sometimes that's
• 1:03:12
  all you need. You, you want to figure it out
• 1:03:14
  yourself. You need those folks to be the
• 1:03:16
  sounding board and not the, here's what you, you should have
• 1:03:20
  done this because that's not always as helpful as you hope
• 1:03:23
  it'll be. So learning that and learning
• 1:03:25
  that with, with the athletes that I work with is that I can't
• 1:03:29
  fix it for them. They, they don't need to be
• 1:03:30
  fixed. Sometimes they just want that
• 1:03:33
  opportunity. They just want to be heard.
• 1:03:35
  And so trying to translate those things that really helped me
• 1:03:40
  into how can I help my athletes? And that's just by being that
• 1:03:44
  person that hears what they need and and helps to get them to
• 1:03:49
  communicate it so that we can all get what we need.
• 1:03:53
  You know, I think one of the most underrated things when
• 1:03:57
  you're in a position like that is just the power of safe human
• 1:04:00
  connection, right? Like you said, you didn't need
• 1:04:03
  somebody to fix it for you, but it meant the world to have
• 1:04:07
  somebody just listen and to be able to share it with somebody.
• 1:04:12
  There is something, I don't know, almost magical, that takes
• 1:04:15
  place when we allow that to happen.
• 1:04:19
  That's absolutely where I think the honesty within the
• 1:04:26
  disability community can come about is that this is a group of
• 1:04:32
  people who have faced challenges potentially their entire lives.
• 1:04:37
  And we tend to think that they are heroes for just facing these
• 1:04:42
  challenges. But in reality, they're just
• 1:04:45
  normal human beings going through the same challenges that
• 1:04:48
  that that we all go through. And so being honest, being
• 1:04:52
  willing to talk with each other, accepting their experiences as
• 1:04:56
  they accept mine, help build those human connections that are
• 1:05:03
  true and that do get you through some of those darker times.
• 1:05:06
  Yeah, and one thing I've learned in communicating with my wife is
• 1:05:12
  when we start talking about something, and I don't do this
• 1:05:15
  often enough. So this is a good reminder for
• 1:05:16
  me. I will ask, are you looking for
• 1:05:20
  help to fix this? Do you want an ear or a hug?
• 1:05:25
  And it could be, you know, some combination of all of those
• 1:05:28
  three things because the way I'm wired.
• 1:05:30
  But I want to come in and I want to fix it.
• 1:05:32
  Oh, you're telling me this thing because you need my help fixing
• 1:05:35
  this. And that's not always the case.
• 1:05:38
  Frequently not the case. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:05:41
  I mean, a lot of us are programmed to be solution based,
• 1:05:43
  right? Everything we hear this, here's
• 1:05:46
  a problem, here's the solution. And one of the things that I've
• 1:05:49
  learned through working with this population is like I said,
• 1:05:54
  they're not, they're not broken. They don't need to be fixed.
• 1:05:57
  I we just need to adapt to each other to have this better
• 1:06:02
  connection. And so learning that, that not
• 1:06:04
  everything is a problem. Some things just are, and we get
• 1:06:08
  to experience it the way that it is and learn from that.
• 1:06:14
  It's it's a different way of thinking, a different way of
• 1:06:16
  living. No, sorry, I've just got one
• 1:06:19
  more question for you. But before I ask it, I want to
• 1:06:21
  do 2 things for everyone listening today.
• 1:06:23
  You like today's content? Please hit the follow button on
• 1:06:26
  your favorite podcast app so you can get more great content like
• 1:06:29
  what Sarah has shared here with us today.
• 1:06:32
  I also am going to let folks know the best way to get in
• 1:06:35
  touch with you in Special Olympics Texas.
• 1:06:37
  It's sotx.org. Just 4 letters to remember
• 1:06:42
  sotx.org, you can find, I'm assuming, volunteer
• 1:06:46
  opportunities, opportunities to donate as well as to just reach
• 1:06:51
  out and connect with the staff there.
• 1:06:54
  So last question I have for you, Sarah, is as you look to the
• 1:06:57
  future, what are some of the things that you're most excited
• 1:07:00
  about for Special Olympics? So there is so much opportunity
• 1:07:10
  at Special Olympics that it's almost too exciting because
• 1:07:15
  there's so much to be able to do.
• 1:07:17
  I love that we are focused on opportunities for more female
• 1:07:23
  athletes to compete in the team sports to get those same
• 1:07:27
  opportunities that their male counterparts often do.
• 1:07:31
  We're really working on the health aspects.
• 1:07:36
  We all know that there is an obesity problem in this country
• 1:07:41
  and a lot of our athletes, they tend to have more solitary,
• 1:07:46
  sedentary lives because they don't potentially work.
• 1:07:49
  They don't have an opportunity to get out.
• 1:07:51
  And so we're really excited to bring more health opportunities,
• 1:07:56
  learning about nutrition, learning about substance abuse
• 1:07:59
  and how to avoid it, learning about hydration and sun safety
• 1:08:03
  and all the things that go into being a healthy athlete.
• 1:08:09
  And knowing that we can really bring that information and that
• 1:08:13
  education to these athletes who are ready and looking for those
• 1:08:17
  opportunities. Education, finding ways to make
• 1:08:22
  every campus a unified campus is so key.
• 1:08:27
  Too often we hear about these horrible acts of violence on
• 1:08:32
  school campuses and we wonder, you know, what's how do we stop
• 1:08:35
  this? How do you know what's going on?
• 1:08:37
  And we find that these schools that embrace unified, that
• 1:08:42
  embrace a culture of acceptance across the campus, have reduced
• 1:08:46
  acts of violence on their campus, reduce the amount of
• 1:08:50
  bullying that happens. We see attendance rates go up.
• 1:08:53
  And so getting to be a part of seeing how Special Olympics can
• 1:08:57
  improve education for everybody, neurotypical, neurodivergent
• 1:09:03
  students, it's an exciting place to be.
• 1:09:06
  And we know that there's so much more that we can learn, but we
• 1:09:11
  have we have the resources, we have the human beings that could
• 1:09:14
  help give us this information. People want to be involved and
• 1:09:17
  we're excited to let them know how to attach themselves to
• 1:09:21
  Special Olympics because it really is a place for everybody.
• 1:09:25
  Sarah, I want to be the first one to thank you for sharing
• 1:09:27
  both your time and your story with us today.
• 1:09:29
  I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me,
• 1:09:32
  I had a blast. Folks, that's a wrap on another
• 1:09:34
  episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
• 1:09:37
  Thanks for learning with us today.