The 2018 TD Campaign marked the 10th anniversary of a partnership between TD Bank and Special Olympics. TD Bank set a goal of raising $1,000,000 for Special Olympics programs throughout their footprint on the east coast of the United States from Maine to Florida. The six-week campaign ran from Monday, May 14th to Friday, June 22nd. During the campaign, TD asks members of their community to help support Special Olympics programs and this year continued their trading card tradition. Philadelphia was lucky to have an athlete, Michael Younkers, featured on one of these cards.

During the campaign, Philadelphia athletes visited the twenty-two branches across the Philadelphia region and meet employees, took tours, worked the counters, and interacted with customers. Our athletes loved sharing their triumphs and experiences with everyone and the TD employees loved getting to know our athletes and hanging out with them in return.

To cap off the campaign, the Philadelphia commercial teams hosted Philadelphia athletes at their offices for a meet and greet. Since commercial teams typically don’t get athlete visits, this was a special treat for them. Athletes and TD employees alike got together for lunch where TD employees learned more about Special Olympics and our mission and local program. After learning about Special Olympics, TD employees got to mix and mingle with our athletes to learn more about them, their experiences, and what makes them who they are.

When all was said and done, TD finished strong and surpassed their $1,000,000 goal.

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Special Olympics Pennsylvania has released their SOPA 2016 – 2020 Strategic Plan. 

Goals

1. Enhance athlete opportunities to achieve their best
2. Build positive attitudes towards people with ID
3. Build capacity through generating more resources and strengthening leadership at all levels of the Movement, including athlete leadership

Strategies

As Antoine de Saint-Exupery said, “A goal without a plan is just a wish”. Below are the strategies for each goal. Each strategy is 

1. Enhance athlete opportunities to achieve their best
   1. Enhance athlete performance levels by improving sports programming
   2. Increase inclusion though Unified Sports and Young Athletes, particularly in schools, and expand to new areas.
   3. Grow our health program to support athlete participation in sport and society
2. Build positive attitudes towards people with ID
   1. Improve external awareness through PR, celebrities and government engagement
   2. Connect the Movement so we can harness our power and speak with a collective voice
   3. Maximize external impact of Games and competitions to showcase athletes’ abilities
3. Build capacity through generating more resources and strengthening leadership at all levels of the Movement, including athlete leadership
   1. Generate more resources
   2. Strengthen leadership

Core Values

Special Olympics Pennsylvania has identified core values that it will use to guide behavior and decisions. These values should be lived in the day-to-day functions during training and competition as well as when making decisions for the organization.

Core values include: Health and Fitness, Respect, Inclusion, Sportsmanship, Passion and Teamwork.

An overview of Special Olympics Pennsylvania’s 2016 – 2020 Strategic Plan by President & CEO Matt Aaron for local programs.

Read the full SOPA 2016 – 2020 Strategic Plan

Hot off the press…Summer Games results are in! Special Olympics Philadelphia athletes have a lot to be proud of! Fifty-four (54) athletes from Philadelphia traveled to State College on June 6th to compete in basketball, athletics, swimming and bowling. The Special Olympics Pennsylvania Summer Games are held each year at Penn State University and feature more than 2,000 athletes and 750 coaches from across the Commonwealth competing in three days of intense competition. This is the largest competition of the year and athletes compete in aquatics, athletics, basketball, bowling, equestrian, golf, gymnastics, softball and tennis. This year’s Summer Games was a qualifying event for the Special Olympics USA Games, taking place June 14-21st, 2014. 

Special Olympics Philadelphia athletes took home an impressive number of medals and awards: 61 gold medals, 20 silver medals, 13 bronze medals and 8 place ribbons. In addition to these achievements on the court, in the pool, on the track and at the lanes, Philadelphia athletes also took home lots of fond memories and new friendships! In addition to our athletes who did amazing, we want to extend a huge congratulations to the coaches who volunteer their time to help our athletes train for this event. Congratulations to all on a great event!

To view a complete listing of Philadelphia’s official results, please click here. For photos from Summer Games by Dane, click here.

It’s the year of the thirteens! On Sunday, April 7th,  13 athletes represented Philadelphia at the 2013 Eastern Bowling Sectional. The theme of the bowling sectional was the Big Top! Philadelphia athletes joined athletes from seventeen other counties including: Area P, Berks, Bethlehem, Bucks, Carbon, Chester, Columbia/Montour, Delaware, Lancaster, Lebanon, Luzerne, Montgomery, Northampton, Northumberland/Snyder, Schuylkill, Union and host county, Lehigh. In total, 325 athletes and 105 met in Allentown to show 

Philadelphia athletes bowled at Mountainville Bowling Center in Allentown, PA. 

2013 Eastern Bowling Sectional Results: