People from Eastern and the Charleston community came out Friday morning at O’Brien Field to support the Area 9 Special Olympics.

Victoria Wilson, a junior special education major, said this event is perfect for all ages to be a part of whether you are in the games or volunteering.

“We had people of all ages join us for the games, more people than we expected,” she said.  “Kids and adults participated in the games and volunteers got really involved with the events.”

The games started at 7:30 a.m. with a parade that consisted of participates of the games to kick-start the Olympics.  “There were over 500 people participating in the games,” she said.

Every volunteer had a sign they held up and after the parade participates would go to their teams or volunteers.  They then walked under a balloon arch together and into the games.  McDonalds were the sponsors at the games to give the people at the games food and water.

Wilson said some of the volunteers were paired with participants to help them train and cheer them while they worked hard in the events.

“One Eastern student, who is also a fellow special education major, said the kid she was paired with reminded her of her brother and they hit it off right away,” she said. Alexandria Ward, a sophomore, said her partner liked her right away and when she had to go he was sad.

“The whole event was very heartwarming.  A lot of people were clapping and cheering and that was the goal of this event was to make it about them,” Ward said.

Wilson said after the group events, participates also took part in their own events, such as long jump, running long jump and softball throw.

“Every volunteer escorted the runners and coached the participants throughout the day to make sure they got there on time,” Ward said.  “After each event individuals were awarded what they earned.”

She said the people did actually train for the games and took them seriously before they came that day.

“Some of them could out run or out do the sports that people at college can do,” she said. “All the volunteers seemed happy to be there and happy to be helping the people.”

Ward said it was nice being able to see her partner along with other members be recognized for their talents they trained for.

“(My partner) had gotten upset because he did not place in his first event, which was running,” she said.  “But he did get second place in in games in total and that was nice.”  Wilson said the games were divided by ages so it would not be unfair.

People were awarded gold medals, and because of the number of participants, the medals quickly dwindled.

“We had more people than we expected so unfortunately we did run out of gold medals but we are going to give the people who won them their medals once we have more,” Wilson said.

Stephanie White can be reached at 581-2812 or at sewhite2@eiu.edu