The AAA High School Basketball Tournament held March 9-11th hosted two championship games for our Unified Schools division. Congratulations to all of the teams on a hard fought game. In addition to great competition the games brought awareness and excitement to the Unified Champion Schools movement.  Unified Schools Championship Game Thursday March 9th Lakeside vs. Lincoln.

    

Pictured above: Championship Winners Lakeside

Pictured above: Runner Up Lincoln  

 

Pictured above: Championship Winners Conway High School

Pictured above: Runner Up Forrest City High School

 

What is Unified Champion Schools?

Fit Families/Fit Teams Challenge - Fit Families is a 6 week fitness/wellness program designed to encourage persons with intellectual disabilities and their supporters to focus on a healthier lifestyle. Families/Team Participants will track success in health and wellness through monthly submitted journals tracking weight, blood pressure etc. Success will be celebrated with a family team reward! http://www.specialolympicsarkansas.org/fit-families.html

 

Young Athletes Physical Activity Curriculum and AETN Healthy Habits for Life Nutrition Curriculum.

http://www.specialolympicsarkansas.org/young-athletes.html

Cooking Matters in partnership with Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance and Nutrition is for Everyone Arkansas. A free cooking class offered for People with Disabilities and their families.  This class offers a cooking course on preparing healthy and fun recipes. Come learn new cooking techniques and healthy eating! Each participant also gets sent home with the ingredients for each meal we cook in class to re-create at home. The class will be for one hour for a total of six weeks with a graduation ceremony to end the course.

 

We offer internships in Public Health, Marketing, and several other majors!

 

We offer wellness integration programming  onsite for your athletes! Contact Camie Powell  to discover more about this opportunity

 

Health Education materials and support for Live Healthy education fairs Live Healthy Education Fairs are an extension of Healthy Athletes. Currently Healthy Athletes Screenings are held in May at Summer Games in 6 disciplines. Live Healthy Education Fairs are purely an educational segment of Healthy Athletes. Unlike the clinical screening elements at the Healthy Athletes event during Summer Games this event is focused on education.

 

These are just some of the resources we have to help your team/family as they focus on health and wellness so be sure to check our website or reach out to the Special Olympics Arkansas staff to find out what resources might benefit you.

 

Are you doing something creative for your team to get healthier? Let us know about it for a feature article and a special team reward. Email your story to Camie Powell.

2017 Special Olympics Arkansas State Basketball Competition was held in Russellville on March 10th and 11th. The tournament venues were at Russellville High School and Russellville Jr. High School. The two day event hosted over 500 athletes from across the state. Special Olympics Arkansas was proud to host at least one team from every area during this two day tournament.  Opening Ceremonies took place at Russellville High School and included a welcoming by Russellville Mayor, Mr. Randy Horton, the National Anthem performance by the group 24/7, and a prayer by Pastor Ronnie Morris. Competition began immediately after Opening Ceremonies and concluded about 9pm. Teams resumed tournament play Saturday morning.

"I was thrilled to see the growth in our basketball competition this year. The teams came prepared and left it all out on the court. The athlete enthusiasm and determination was definitely encouraged by the coaches that spent so many dedicated hours getting their teams ready for this tournament," Director of Sports Training and Competition, Irvin Humphrey.

This tournament would not be possible without Johnny Johnson and Russellville High School, the City of Russellville, River Valley Realtors, First Assembly of God, the Water Store, KFC, and Arkansas Tech University. Thank you!