The Arc of Indiana Blog

It was a great weekend in Terre Haute, joining 2,400 athletes and 1,000 coaches and volunteers in celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Indiana Special Olympics. And if you wanted to experience pure joy that helped you refocus your energies you could not have picked a better place to be than Friday night in Hulman Arena.

It was 1969 and The Arc of Indiana hosted the first games at Bush Field in Indianapolis. 500 athletes, coaches and volunteers registered – over 1,000 showed up. Thankfully Fort Harrison and others provided cots so that everyone had a bed to sleep in at the old Marott Hotel on North Meridian.

These and other stories were shared between Ilene Younger Qualkenbush who was at the first games and Mike Furnish, CEO and President of Indiana Special Olympics at the start of the Torch Run Friday morning at Victory Field. Ilene was amazed at the nearly 200 members of the law enforcement community who were there for the Torch Run to Terre Haute – an effort that this year hoped to raise over $500,000 for Special Olympics.

It was great fun and a great reminder of how far we have come. The Arc was proud to have been around at the beginning and even more proud today to support Indiana Special Olympics – what I believe is the best, most inclusive and innovative program in the country. Congratulations to the Athletes, Coaches and Volunteers not for what you have done, but for what lies ahead.

With the upcoming Special Session of the Indiana General Assembly, participating in this event, made it ever more real to understand why we do what we do, every day for Hoosiers with developmental disabilities.