Special Olympics Pennsylvania will celebrate its 56th annual Summer Games June 4-6 as 2,000 athletes and 600 coaches visit the Penn State campus for the organization’s largest annual statewide event.
Support from approximately 1,000 volunteers helps it all run smoothly, and opportunities for community members and groups to help out are still available.
“We have these 2,000 athletes. We have 600 coaches,” said Sue Paterno, a longtime Special Olympics Pennsylvania board member and supporter. “We need them to get off the bus, to get them to the right place, to help us set up, to help the coaches and people that run the venues.
“People really have fun once they do it and you get them hooked, because it is not just self-satisfying. It’s the fun you have with all the athletes and all the other people. And it is crucial for us to run the games smoothly.”
To register to volunteer, visit specialolympicspa.org.
Most volunteer shifts are no more than four hours long and no experience is needed. Volunteers can commit to one day or more.
Paterno began volunteering with the Special Olympics after her son David suffered a fractured skull and was in a dayslong coma following a trampoline accident in 1977. She said she felt compelled “to give back and help other people because I’d gone through this.”
“After about two or three times, I said I am not really paying back, because I had so much fun with them,” Paterno said.
“Number one, you learn how great they are. Number two, they’re smiling the whole time and you have fun with them. And you think, ‘I don’t think I could do that.’ When you watch them compete, you think, ‘they’re a lot better than we are.’”
Opening Ceremonies for the Summer Games, which is in its 36th year at the University Park campus, will be held at 7:15 p.m. on June 4 at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.
Throughout the weekend, athletes will compete in five sports — aquatics, athletics, basketball, gymnastics and tennis — that also serve as qualifiers for national competitions. For athletes who will represent Team PA at the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games in Minnesota at the end of June, the SOPA Summer Games are the final tune up before they compete on the national stage.
The Summer Games also offer an opportunity for athletes to receive free health screenings and educational events through the Healthy Athlete program.
The program is designed to combat the disparity that Special Olympics athletes experience in health care. People with intellectual disabilities face an increased risk for suffering needlessly from chronic pain and disease, blindness, hearing loss, premature deaths and numerous other easily preventable health conditions.
Screenings at this year’s SOPA Summer Games will include eye, ear, teeth, feet and fitness.
Special Olympics Pennsylvania provides year-round training and competition in more than 20 sports to over 15,000 children and adults with intellectual disabilities or closely related developmental disabilities.
Day-of and year-round volunteers are essential to making it all happen, and every volunteer that signs up helps get four athletes involved. Registration for volunteers, athletes and Unified Partners is now open for the fall sports season as well at specialolympicspa.org.
“In this day and age, with everything going on in the whole world, we need to help each other,” Paterno said.
