Special Olympics comes to CSULB

Special Olympics Southern California will hold the 2000 Summer Games at CSULB beginning on Friday night, June 16 through Sunday, June 18. Approximately 1,400 athletes, their coaches and more than 2,000 volunteers will be participating.

Athletes who range from 8 to 66 years old will compete in seven sports that include aquatics, athletics, basketball, and  golf.  All games will be held on campus facilities except for golf, which will take place at Bixby Village Golf Course.

Participating athletes have mental retardation or closely related developmental disabilities, and some are even physically disabled.

It is the purpose of Special Olympics Southern California, a non-profit organization, to help children and adults with mental and physical disabilities develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage and experience joy through sports training and competition.

Besides competitions, many different activities will take place.  Sports Expo Park at the Athletic Field is open to the public for fun, food and entertainment throughout the weekend.  Many exciting activities and contests are scheduled and open to the public so that everyone can learn new skills in a variety of sports.

According to Val Lihang, a coordinator of Campus Events office, this is the second consecutive year the Summer Games will be held at Cal State Long Beach after being held at UCLA for more than 20 years.

Tremendous efforts were made to host and support last year's event by campus police, parking, the athletic department, and Facilities Management, Lihang said.

"We're honored that the Special Olympics is going to be held on our campus," CSULB President Maxson said.  "[Special Olympics Southern California] held the event last year on a trial basis, and it was so successful that they now wanted to use this campus every year."

While no money is made for CSULB by the event, the benefit to the campus would be "that the University knows that it's helping others," Maxson said.

Most games and activities will be held on lower campus.  A complete schedule of the activities will be available at the Sports Expo Park.

If you are interested in volunteering, you can come to the volunteer booth on the South side of The Pyramid at 7:30 a.m. on June 18.