Welcome!

Special Olympics Utah provides year-round sports training and competition for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Through sports, athletes discover new strengths and abilities, develop greater skills and confidence, and experience added joy and fulfillment in their lives.

“What I’m up to during the 2020 Quarantine!”

Begins NOW ends April 30th, 2020!

Snap some pictures and send them our way! We’re looking for your creativity to spell out SOUT with items laying around your house!

How does this contest work?

Grab a camera.
Spell out SOUT.
Take a picture… or 2.
Submit your photos to us! How? Email them to Information@sout.org.
**Bonus—send us your address! For every submission, we’ll send you a Special Olympics Pin.
We’ll announce winners April 30th! Winners receive a Gift Card!

— Outstanding Submissions So Far —

Draw what Special Olympics Utah means to you. Your favorite sport, your favorite activity or Special Olympics Utah events. Draw how participating in sports make you feel.

— OR —

Draw a new logo for us to use in the return of our bowling season. Rules for the logo are below.

You must use the Special Olympics Utah logo (below)
Must be clean
You may use the Special Olympics bowling sports icon (below)

How to enter your drawing into the competition

Get out your coloring supplies. You may use any medium you’d like
Draw what Special Olympics Utah means to you AND/OR draw a new logo for the bowling season
Take a picture or scan your photo. We need a digital copy.
Submit your photo by email to information@sout.org
Be sure to include your address in your email. We will send a Special Olympics pin in the mail
We’ll announce the winners April 30th

Winners of the logo competition will get to see their logo at our bowling tournament.

Winners of the coloring competition will have their drawing auctioned to raise money for SOUT.

A Message from our President and CEO

We are in a time like we have never seen before. All of us are being faced with unprecedented challenges and hardships. For the very first time in history the entire world is being affected by something we did not see coming. While this is scary and overwhelming it is not insurmountable. Now is the time when we get to see the true nature of humans. Where compassion, caring and support is like at no other time. While taking care of your family and friends is of utmost importance, we also need to think about those who do not have as strong of a support system.

Our wonderful athletes are going through the same struggles that we are but may not have the support that we do. Special Olympics Utah is working hard to make sure our athletes know we are here and that we care. We are developing at home exercise programs and ways for athletes to communicate so they know they are not alone. If you know someone with an intellectual disability take the time to communicate in some small way to let them know you are thinking of them.

Because of the current situation we have been unable to have our State Basketball Games and unfortunately needed to cancel our Summer Games as well. It is necessary to cancel all practices and events through May and we will review at that time whether we can begin practices and events. We are working to bring Bowling back as a registered sport and not as an exhibition. We are trying to set up regional teams and tournaments to engage as many athletes as possible. While this cannot replace the Summer Games, we are going to do our best to have events throughout the remainder of the year to bring our athletes and their families together.

We will be posting some ideas for our athletes and families that anyone can use to stay active and involved. We will also be putting together a few contests to get the public and our athletes engaged with each other even though we will not physically be together. Look for those to start later this week.

Please take care of one another and if you have any ideas on how to engage with our athletes and the community, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Sincerely,

Jeannie M. Gamble

President/CEO

Special Olympics Utah

Join Special Olympic Athletes across the country in the Fit 5 Challenge!

Start by following Special Olympics Colorado’s new
Fit 5 page. https://www.facebook.com/groups/SOCOFIT5/

There you can participate in live videos of other athletes’ workouts and follow what others are doing to stay active. Once you start following, be sure to submit a photo or video of yourself. Include your name, that you’re a Special Olympics Utah athlete, what sports you play, and what you are doing to stay active and healthy.

What is Fit 5? This program focuses on three very important aspects of a healthy lifestyle.
1 – Exercise 5 days a week
2 – Eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day
3 – Drink 5 bottles of water a day.

Use your Fit 5 tracker to record your progress. Once you complete a week of meeting the Fit 5 Challenge requirements, send a picture of your tracking sheet to your coach or to Jennifer Percival (assistant@sout.org) from the SOUT office. We will then send you a Special Olympics pin! If you can do 5 weeks of the Fit 5 challenge, we’ll send you a Special Olympics Utah shirt.