Jackie Commins, a friend of Juniper Village at Meadville who also is a long-time volunteer for the Special Olympics, recently gave us insight on this wonderful program that serves as an inspiration to many. For many years, Jackie was a school teacher in Baltimore. Upon retirement, she returned to Meadville and became involved with Special Olympics.
The mission of Special Olympics is “to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, giving them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in a sharing of gifts, skills and friendship with their families, other Special Olympics athletes and the community.” Volunteers are a key part of bringing the mission to life. Jackie is one of more than 800,000 Special Olympics volunteers across the globe.
Jackie, who specializes in the swimming and bowling events, spoke about the great deal of preparation that both volunteers and athletes must do to ready themselves for the Games each year.
She offered these words of wisdom that are the Special Olympics athletes’ oath: “Let me win. But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt.” That’s truly life advice that any of us can take to heart. Thank you Jackie for your service to athletes in our community, and for sharing your time with us at Juniper!
To learn more about living life to the fullest at Juniper Village at Meadville, click here or call Wendy at 814.333.4400.