Racer News
JULY - AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2019
September 22nd - SODCOH BONFIRE, POTLUCK AND HAYRIDES!!
All events, cancellations, time changes, directions and other specifics can be found on the website calendar. Updates are posted as we get them. It is your best source for up-to-date information.
Cheer - Our squad did a wonderful job in the cheer competition at Summer Games. Cheer has finally become a sanctioned sport for Special Olympics!
Golf - The golf team showed up strong for the Regional Tournament. They will be competing on the state level in mid September. Go Racers!
Soccer - Practices and games have been delayed due to weather. Hopefully September will be better for weather!
Bowling - We again have a wait list for Session 1 of bowling. We would like for all bowlers to participate but we are limited because of the number of lanes.
Basketball - Willis Educational Center has been reserved for our players Oct - Feb. Divisioning will be set by the end of September. October will be practice. Games will start in December. If you can help with basketball in any way please contact our coordinator. We need any assistance you can give!
Swim - We will be having Aquatics. Dates will be set soon. Things have changed due to the new SOOH guidelines.
Lady Racer coach - Our Lady Racers are without a coach for the current season. They are a great team of girls that work hard. They placed second in last year's tournament and first the prior two years. They are looking for some payback this year!
Flag Football coach - Many of our athletes have expressed interest in flag football. All we need is a coach. It is the latest craze in Special Olympics.
Team Parent(s) - Help our coaches get on with the business of coaching. We are looking for at least one parent per sport/team to lighten the load for our outstanding coaches.
Advisory Committee Members - We need committed volunteers to help make decisions and changes in our organization. Things are changing quickly and we need to be ready for our athlete's futures! The commitment is four meetings a year.
Fundraising - We are searching for a group of individuals that are willing to ask for donations! When fundraising help was requested in a recent email there was one response with a check. Thank-you! Our expenses include uniforms, equipment, registration fees & lunch purchases for competitions, venue rental and other office expenses. We spend approximately $30,000 a year on these items. Services are free for our athletes but not for the organization. Donations to Special Olympics Ohio do not filter down to us
General Volunteers - We can use help in all areas! Adults as well as high school and college students are welcome. We can always find something for you to do!
Please welcome Ruth Ann Schuster to coaching. She comes to us from OWU where she oversees their cheerleaders. She has extensive experience and clicked with our squad immediately. She brings fresh enthusiasm and is an asset to our program. We are blessed to have her!!
Tiffany Bowen and Tyler Day deserve a huge thank-you. They have stepped up to coach soccer for us. Tiffany's day job is with Creative Foundations. Tyler is starting his own renovation company. He also coaches track for us and works with Delaware Younglife Capernaum. We can't thank you enough!
Tereasa Filipski is a long time member of SODCOH. She and her son Doug have golfed for years. When we wanted to expand our golf program she lead the way. She has been instrumental in its success. Tereasa arranged our practice time at Delaware Golf Club as well as use of their golf carts. And, she keeps us organized. Special thank-you to her. Our golf program is a big success because of her.
Ken and Mackenzie Collett are a father and daughter team that volunteered their time weekly to assist our golfers. Ken is the golf pro at Darby Creek Golf Course. Mac attends Delaware Hayes High School. They were a HUGE help!
Ohio Wesleyan University is
again opening their exercise program to us. It provides weekly
exercise for our athletes and college credit for their
students. Our parents and athletes are very pleased with this
opportunity.
OWU has hosted our swimming team for several seasons. They also invited us to the Bishop Champion Games track and field event last year.
OWU has also invited us to participate in their Service Fair. Our local coordinator will be attending and hopefully recruiting volunteers for our athletes.
You can reach the entire committee by sending email to advisory-list@sodcoh.org.
Connie Warner
Local Coordinator
Jim Conger
IT and Admin
Leslie Deacon
Finances and Coach Representative
Jen Moore
Uniform and Equipment Manager
Scott Pankoff
Coach
Richard Upton
Community Representative
John Edgerton
Athlete Representative
We are always looking for new committee members. If you would like to help guide the future of SODCOH please contact any of the above member emails.
In this issue we are highlighting John Edgerton. John bowls, plays basketball, and has played other sports in the past. He is also a member of the Advisory Committee as an athlete representative. John is expanding his role with us. He will be interviewing athletes for this section of our newsletter. If you want to be highlighted here please contact John at advisory-list@sodcoh.org. Athletes may contact him at the same email with issues related to Special Olympics.
Thank-you John!
Many things have changed with SOOH over the past year. Staff have retired, new people hired, positions within the group have changed, as well as policy changes. Please review this presentation and open letter sent by SOOH to all local organizations.
We want to share these with you so that you have a better understanding of where changes are coming from and that we have no choice but to comply. SODCOH will be dealing with these changes sport by sport. We may also be adding local competitions to provide our athletes with more opportunities. We cannot do this without the assistance of parents and staff. Your response to our volunteer requests will determine the opportunities that we can provide.
A Special Thanks to recent donors:
Did you know that you can use your Kroger card to donate to SODCOH? We have 19 current donors that recently sent donations through the Kroger program. It is a painless way to support the on-going needs of our athletes. Please visit the Kroger Community Rewards page and choose us as your organization. We are listed as SPECIAL OLYMPICS DELAWARE CO., organization number SA652. If you search for SA652, you will find us right away.
Some companies offer matching donations with their employees that can be directed to SODCOH. Please check with your employer about this and other possibilities for support of our athletes. If you need something from us to register us with your employer's program, please let us know.
Dear Athletes, Families and Volunteers,
First. I want to thank you for your patience over the last sixteen months. It has been both a challenging and rewarding roller coaster ride. This newsletter itself has been planned for three months. I'm happy to finally have it in your hands. We will be publishing it quarterly. We are a diverse group spread out across the county, making it difficult to provide information. I hope this newsletter helps. It will be evolving over time. Please bear with us as we work out the kinks. If you have suggestions or things you would like to put in the newsletter please email them to me at connie.warner@sodcoh.org.
Reflecting on the past season, many things have happened. The office has been cleared out. Important paperwork (athlete files etc...) has been moved to my home so that I can more easily and quickly provide information. Ninety-five pounds of files were shredded. We now have a complete list of our 265+ athletes and numerous volunteers. We have a new equipment and uniform manager. The athletes and coaches have new uniforms, equipment and coach shirts. We have streamlined info sent to the State through their GMS system. Everyone has access to our gear store through the website. We also have a new website full of the most current information. We have put in place policies to address issues of registration, late registration, attendance, uniforms and eligibility. They can be found on the website. Much of this is thanks to Jim Conger our "IT Guy" and Jennifer Moore. I could not do this job without them!!
Looking forward, many of the changes we need to make come from SOOH requirements. Other changes come from our desire to provide more sports opportunities for our athletes. Some of these will replace things SOOH has eliminated. I would like to see each of our teams have scrimmage games/competitions outside of the regional and state offerings. It would be very helpful if each sport held a fundraiser connected to that same sport in the community, much like powerlifting did in the spring at Legion XIX Fitness in Powell. Our coaches have an enormous responsibility to our athletes. Their time should be spent coaching. Toward that end, each sport needs a team parent(s) to lighten the load and take on some of the non-coaching responsibilities.
My biggest concern is and has been volunteers. We all want our organization to move forward and become all that we know it can be. We have more than 265 athletes and are growing every month. However, when I sent out a volunteer request for fundraising and soccer I received only three responses. As a non-profit, we use volunteers extensively. We spend $30,000 annually just providing services that we now offer. If we are to grow and provide a higher level of service and opportunities, we need more volunteers. Programs we all want to see happen can only be provided with more involvement from families and staff. I hope you will reconsider your commitment and contact me. As little as two hours a month can help. I can find ways for all of you to help us help our athletes.
I hope to see all of you at our annual event. This year we will be having a bonfire, potluck and hayride! It will be a great way to connect and support each other. I hope to see you at Harvest Hill Farms on September 22nd. Time to be decided. Please check the calendar.
Thank-you all for sharing your athletes with me. They are the absolute best part of my job! Go Racers!!!
Connie Warner
Local Coordinator
connie.warner@sodcoh.org
Please visit our web site, www.sodcoh.org for more and current information, including our calendar.
You can contact us by:
Emailing us at info@sodcoh.org
Calling or texting us at 740-200-0682.
Sending postal mail to:
Special Olympics of Delaware County
7991 Columbus Pike
Lewis Center, OH 43035