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WATERVILLE — The Waterville Boys & Girls Clubs and YMCA are partnering with Special Olympics Maine and the Maine Masonic Charitable Foundation to develop the nation’s first and only Unified Champion Club, using team sports and community programs to promote inclusion and volunteering.
“The experience of playing on a unified team is like no other,” said Sawyer Boulette, wellness director and current Special Olympics board member. Unified athlete Ashton Erving added, “Everyone has so much fun, disabled or not.”
The sports program fields teams of 50 percent athletes with intellectual disabilities and 50 percent volunteers without disabilities, or partners. The programs already offer inclusive swim classes, karate lessons and baseball, but this venture will expand the scope and age of participants in these and other sports, like basketball, pickle ball and volleyball.
“We have strong unified programs throughout Maine’s schools,” said Ian Frank, director of Unified Champion Schools, “but the schools don’t often have pools or enough court space for practices and games…” The Waterville programs are “perfectly poised to bridge that gap of sports team membership and community after unified athletes graduate from high school.”
“The missio is laudable,” Boulette noted, “but the vision to create a culture of inclusiveness and acceptance … is groundbreaking. (This) will be the first club of its kind in the country. We hope to see it replicated broadly because it represents a model for the way every school, every club and every community could be – places of welcome, safety and mutual respect — and filled with the joy of togetherness.”
Simultaneously, Susan Scacchi, executive director of the Maine Masonic Charitable Foundation, was searching for an avenue to spread the Masons’ culture of volunteerism and community building across Maine in an impactful way. The trustees recently approved funding staffing for the… Unified Club Program in the amount of $100,000 over two years.
“The Mason’s are builders, building lives with the purpose of building communities, explained Grand Master Mark Rustin. “We are dedicated to this project for two years and, with its success, beyond!”
The Masons will also make up a great number of the “other fifty percent,” the volunteers who get to swim, shoot hoops and celebrate sportsmanship with the Unified Champions. They will be the volunteer coaches, teammates and cheerleaders, bringing inclusion to Central Maine through participating in this important program.
Erica Fredrick-Rock, Unified Club program coordinator, is planning the January kick-off with basketball, swimming and club programs. “I’ve worked with the Special Olympics Unified Champions School program for years and am so excited to (promote) these barrier-busting activities. I know the Greater Waterville communities will grab hold of this program and run with it!”
Every registered unified athlete will not only participate in team sports, activities and clubs, but will receive free memberships to the Pathway to Wellness program, which includes access to sports medicine professionals, fitness center rooms, equipment, classes, and more. All Unified partners will also be given free access to programs and facilities while engaging with their unified athlete.
