Service: Project Unify, Special Olympics Basketball

In the 10th grade for my MYP personal project I designed bracelets with the logo "stop the r word" on them and donated the money i made from selling them to the special olympics organization of Texas.  Because of my best friend's brother, Dan, I have always been very passionate about spreading the word about kids with special needs and fighting for their equality and working towards creating a more respectful community.  Because my school counselor knew that I was passionate abou this she asked me to help her start a club at our school called, Project Unify.  the purpose of the club was to get more people at our school involved in the special needs community and to educate people about different mental handicaps and why not to use the deragatory term "retard

The winning team at the tournament

Through this program I became aware of multiple community service oppurtunities involving kids and adults with special needs.  One of the main oppurtunities was the area Special Olympics.  The first time I worked at a Special Olympics event was keeping score at a basketball game.  The whole experience heightened my passion for the cause and made me even more aware of how important it was that I helped to make my school a more respectful community.  Throughout the day I kept score at several games and interacted with several of the athletes.  I loved getting to talk to them and spend time with them and learn about what they liked to do and what they had to say.  It was a very meaningful experience for me and made me want to volunteer at the special olympics every weekend.