Got a lot of much. Got a black, I'm got a black got on. Let's see and good morning. Welcome to Community Connection on this Monday morning. It is eight thirty four, almost a thirty five. I'm Nathan Thompson and we've got a great guest in studio today. We have Nadia Jackson, who's the Grand Area Director. I love that title, Grand Aria Director, right for Grand Area Special Olympics. It's Nadia. How are you today? I'm great. How are you doing? Oh, I'm great too,
I'm doing wonderful. We've had some McDonald's here at the studio today. I'm telling you, man, what a great way to start your day. It was a great way to start the day, absolutely, and a great way to start the day is also talking to you about Special Olympics. And it's an event that is near and dear to not only my heart, but I know a lot of our listeners hearts as well. We just had a big, huge event at Bartiswore High School. As we did, Yeah we did.
How did that go? Oh? It went well. We had one hundred and sixty athletes from all over Grand Area come out to compete in that For the first time ever, the Bartlesville Police Department did the letters torch run. They ran the torch into the stadium from the police department. It was great. It was awesome to see our athletes did well and thankfully the weather
was nice. Absolutely it was I was watching that forecast as well, like, oh my goodness, hopefully everything will be okay for those incredible athletes. Now, of course, Special Olympics is for people of any age really that have three to one hundred there you go, there you go, who have intellectual disabilities, yes, and other challenges in their lives, and Special Olympics just shows hey, you know what, if I can do it, anybody can do it, right, absolutely, and it's just a time frame in
which people can come and celebrate and have a great time as well. I know we have a great time coming up here in just a couple of days at big cornhole tournaments Saturday. Wow, we do. We have athletes from Craig County, Delaware County, Mays County, Washington County, Ottawa County all coming to Bartlesviille High School. Nice to play some cornhole. We're gonna do individuals in the morning and then some unified partners in the afternoon. A cornhole
with us. I'm telling you, I'm telling you that's a game I can actually do too. I'm really I'm not that athletic. I'm the first one to admit it. But I can certainly play some cornhole. I'm telling you. Yeah, I enjoyed it two years ago when the state actually made it an official event. Oh, I love I can play cornhole absolutely absolutely. So this is coming up April and thirteenth, It's coming Saturday, and again, what time is the time? We're asking people to be there, and
we absolutely need some volunteers. If anybody in the community would like to come out and help us that morning, that's great, that's great, yes,
And I mean it just gives somebody. I volunteer for these events. Since I'm speaking a little bit from personal experience and maybe it's just me, but man, the feeling and the excitement and the love and the smiles that go on during special Olympics and dealing with and helping these extraordinary athletes, that's what I call them extraordinary, and they are they really are sent and they they find a way to touch your life while you're giving back and touching their life.
Absolutely, it's a give and take there that's right. So is a cornhole tournament? Is it going to be outdoors or is it indoor? We actually didn't want to mess with the weather, so we have it at the indoor facility. Okay, it'll be set up nice there. We'll have concession stands. Even if you don't want to volunteer, come out and watch them,
come out and cheer them on. They love that. Is that going to be at the Bruin field House or the phillipse Okay, so the big one, the big one one, Well, that's plenty of plenty of room for folks to come out and volunteer as well as to people to come out and cheer on. Yes, this event as well. We definitely welcome spectators, absolutely absolutely. So if somebody would like to volunteer to help you with the cornhole tournament, how can they do that? Send me an email at
grand at s o ok dot org. Very good, easy enough, easy enough, and send them the linked to sign up for volunteers. There you go, There you go. Now you have another one coming up too, so we have a busy time at the time of year. We have on the twentieth, so that's the following Saturday. We are doing bachi at Vanita High School. Nice. Nice, So yeah, we're just staying busy. So for those who are not familiar with with what BATCHI is, oh man,
can you give it a brief description? Yes, for bachi, absolutely on the spot there. Sorry, no, you're fine. It's an outdoor game that that blend's skill and strategy. You throw out a littler white ball and then each team has four colored balls, and you're trying to get your ball as close to the little white ball as possible, and all of your balls that are closer than your teammates that's how many points you get. There you go. So is it like rolling a ball? You roll the ball?
Okay, so kind of like like a bit of a take on maybe shuffleboard and bowling at the same time, so same thing. Yeah, it's a lot like shuffle board because you can definitely roll the ball and knock your opponents all out of the way. Love it. So yeah, it's a lot like shuffle board, is how I think of it. Wow, I'm telling you. So. We have the Cornhols Tournament coming up here in Bartlesville
for Special Olympics at Bartlesviall High School this coming Saturday morning. And then the following Saturday the Grand Area and that again is basically the northeast section of Oklahoma from Washington County all the way over to Ottawa County. Am I right with that, all the way over to the state line. There you go, see all of them. I'm telling you. I'm telling you. So we'll have a perhaps another hundred special athletes that might be here as well. Do
you know the numbers that you're expecting. I hope we have around one hundred and fifty for that one. Wow, So it's going to be quite an event. So one hundred and fifty special athletes coming into town this Saturday morning for a corn hole tournament at Boloshall High School in the fieldhouse. And then we have a bokey ball that's going on in Venita, yes, the following weekend. And this is all gearing up for the big event, right, yes, yeah, So we have the State Special Olympics coming up. When
is that going to be? Oh May fifteenth through seventeen, And that's in Stillwater, right it is. Thousands of athletes from all over the state will descend on still Water. The minute those college kids move out of the doors, we're moving in oh I love it. And we spend three days there. We have an amazing opening ceremony and three days worth of competitions and it's
fun to see absolutely absolutely so. Again Grand Area Special Olympics. A couple more of this, excuse me, coming up for our area the Saturday in Bartlesville at BHS and the next Saturday in Veneta, and then the Big State Games coming up May fifteenth through the seventeenth on the campus of Oklahoma State University. Wow, they are excited, and it's again, I just go back to this. It's a great enrichment for the special athletes. It is.
I mean, whenever I was in Rapid City, excuse me, I actually helped out with Special Olympics in Rapid City, South Dakota, and we did bowling. I was therefore their bowling tournament, and oh my goodness, gracious, they had so much fun. I was running around taking photos of all these great athletes and man, they get serious. Oh they do. There's some serious competitors out there. But the one thing I've noticed about them is they're great athletes. Whether they win or they lose, they they're in a
great mood. They cheer on everybody around them, which is just amazing to see. It's camaraderie that they build. And yes, again, volunteers, volunteers. Volunteers are needed for the cornhole tournament coming up this Saturday morning about high school. Give me that email address one more time in case somebody was driving and listening they Oh my goodness, what's that email address? I need? It is Grand at s o ok dot org. There you go,
Grand at s o o k k dot org. Yes, the s o OK stands for Special Olympics Oklahoma. There you go, sock, I can remember that, so Grand at souk dot org or there you go. That's that's easy for me to remember. I'm telling you, I'm getting up an age. It's it's tough for me to remember some things. Sometimes. Very good we Nadia Jackson, Grand Area director for Special Olympics, talking about everything going on here over the next couple of weeks leading up to the Big State
Games at Oklahoma State University on May the fifteenth to the seventeenth. Get out support these great athletes this Saturday at BHS. Give her an email to volunteer and then hey, if you want to make a road trip to Venita, watch some bokey ball that would be great as well, but not anything else that is going on with Special Olympics. Gearing up for next season, I mean always, always, yeah, we already have plans for next season in
the works. We kick off right at the beginning of the school year with swimming, which actually this year we're bringing here to Phillip sixty six facility. We've got so many great facilities here, it's wonderful we do so yeah, this year we're going to bring swimming into Bartlesville. It's never been here before. Love it. We already have that talked over with Phillip sixty six. And then right after that we hit bowling perfect perfect, yeah. Well again.
If you will learn more about Special Olympics Oklahoma, specifically the Grand Area, you can visit their website soooka dot org and then of course get out and cheer for these extraordinary athletes who will be in town this coming Saturday. Nadia Jackson, Grand Aria, Director for Special Olympics, thank you so much, thanks for journeying us today on Community Connection. You've been listening to Community Connection here on AM fourteen hundred FM ninety three point three ninety five point one
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