Special Olympics Maryland has only one paid employee designated for the Eastern Shore, which limits the benefits for the athletes and the effectiveness of fundraising.
The Special Olympics provides completely free practices and competitions to individuals with intellectual disorders and the sports offered include basketball, golf, kayaking, softball, and many more.The organization serves 6,500 athletes with intellectual disabilities, of the 125,000 in Maryland, says Jason Schriml, Vice President of Communications. This means about five percent of this population is served. Pennsylvania also serves about five percent, but from a pool of over 381,000 intellectually disabled individuals.
Eddie Cherrix, the sole staff member on the Eastern Shore, is the Regional Administrator, and is assisted only by two administrative volunteers for both the upper and lower shores.
“The over 250 Special Olympic athletes on the Eastern Shore can be broken down into two groups: interscholastic and community,” Cherrix said.
The interscholastic program is a unified group offered to high school students. The program pairs a disabled athlete with a non-disabled athlete, offering a minimum of two 90-minute practices per week, two competitions per season, and a state invitational. It is available to athletes in the fall, winter, and spring. The community program is offered to athletes with intellectual disabilities, from 8-years-old and up. While still offering three seasons, the program goes year-round with the spring and summer sessions combined, and it’s Cherrix’s responsibility to oversee both programs, the athletes, and their volunteer-based coaches.
The Eastern Shore has two problems impeding the success of Special Olympics Maryland: a large land area with a low population, and a low amount of revenue generated by fundraising compared to other regions in the state. As the Eastern Shore covers a large area, it is geographically difficult for one person to cover it. Also, because of the sparse population, it is hard to get transportation for the athletes, many of whom, live in group homes. With only two subregions on the shore, transportation is especially important, as athletes may have a long commute.
Tolbert Rowe is the father of 25-year-old Kelsey Rowe, a Special Olympics athlete, and has been involved with the program for about ten years.
“A major drawback is the distance athletes have to travel,” Rowe said.
Cherrix explained that there are not enough athletes to create a team in the mid-shore and that collaborating with Delaware is also not an option because Special Olympics Maryland is separate from the adjacent state’s organization. “Awareness is the best way to get more volunteers and athletes involved, and to encourage community engagement,” he said. This topic directly affects the athletes, as it causes low numbers of participation, resulting in fewer teams and greater travel time.
Rowe is also an active volunteer who’s Special Olympics coaching experience includes basketball and kayaking. “It’s difficult to find coaches,” he said. “It’s difficult to reach out, identify athletes, and get community involvement.”
The spring and summer seasons were original separate. However, when they merged, golf and kayaking began to compete for participants, specifically in the program based on the lower shore at Martinak State Park. Many of the athletes who previously had participated in both now had to choose.
Rowe was the coach of both sports, and opted to drop kayaking. After the seasons merged, the Martinak group lost Rowe as their coach, and the athletes lost their team.
Aside from a lack of awareness to recruit volunteers and athletes, Rowe also discussed the difficulties in coaching the Special Olympics athletes.
“You have to be very patient and very understanding. Some athletes will never get past a certain skill level,” Rowe says. “It’s difficult to find coaches who meet those qualifications.”
The Eastern Shore’s low population is also a problem for regional fundraising amplified by the fact that most counties on the shore have average household incomes below state values, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Also, because most of the shore’s athletes live in group homes, fundraising can be a challenge. Cherrix used Little League as an analogy: parents of these athletes will often get their businesses to sponsor their children’s teams, whereas the Special Olympics athlete would not have that option, being cared for by paid staff, rather than parents.
The largest fundraiser for Special Olympics Maryland is the Polar Bear Plunge, held every January at Sandy Point State Park. This year’s plunge raised over $2 million, and is approximately one-third of their total annual fundraising.
Other ways of building revenue come from partnerships with private businesses and a variety of other, smaller fundraisers. The organization receives a minimal amount of funding from a government grant.
With a second Special Olympics Maryland employee based on the Eastern Shore, there would be opportunity for a more concentrated effort to build awareness and to raise funds.
Both Cherrix and Rowe believe an additional staff member would be beneficial.
“It would make it much easier from a managerial standpoint with an extra director and the current regional director has a lot on his plate,” Rowe says.
It would also help the organization’s present goal to double the amount of athletes the non-profit serves in five years, Schriml said. Schriml believes that expanding the programs in both Western Maryland and the Eastern Shore, as well as building a strong interscholastic program can help the organization reach it’s goal.
Though the Eastern Shore has comparatively less athletes, funding, staff, and volunteers than the rest of the state, Special Olympics in the area still provides great benefits.
“It’s given her an outlet for exercise,” Rowe said of his daughter. “She gets the opportunity to try her best.”
“The Special Olympics is more a way of life than a program,” Cherrix said. “It teaches life lessons, builds camaraderie, team building skills, and goal setting.”
“It doesn’t take long to get pulled in,” Rowe says. “It’s fun. You just enjoy it.”
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