10 year old Tommy Dean came home from watching his younger brother, Max, compete at the 2010 Summer Games. He sat down and wrote this essay for a school project, and reminded us all about the joy, power, and all-around awesomeness of Special Olympics. (Pictured belwo: Tommy Dean, center, with his brother Max, right).

"I went to the Florida State Summer Special Olympics Games this past Friday and Saturday.  I am writing this because I want you to be a fan of Special Olympics.  In this essay, I will discuss some of the reasons why I think you should be a fan of Special Olympics.  I plan to highlight the fact that Special Olympics includes individuals with a large variety of disabilities and ages and focuses on the fun of the competition.  Another reason that you should be a fan of Special Olympics is that the Games are held in interesting and exciting places.  When you are finished reading my essay, I hope you will want to be a fan of Special Olympics Florida, like me.

The first reason to be a fan of Special Olympics is there are a lot of disabilities represented.  There are athletes who are blind that cannot see and deaf that cannot hear.  I saw athletes with walking poles to guide them safely from event to event and I also saw a companion dog assisting an athlete after her competition.  I saw athletes with physical disabilities; one was running a race with a crutch and others were competing in Assisted Walk races with special walker devices.  There are athletes with Down syndrome and other chromosomal defects and athletes with Autism.  Of course, there are athletes with more than one disability that get to compete as well, like my brother Max who has Down syndrome and Autism.

Another reason to be a fan of Special Olympics is because the athletes compete from ages 2 up to 92.  The youngest athlete I saw competing was probably about 8 years old and he was so cute.  There were athletes from counties and schools all over the State of Florida.  My brother Max competed against an elementary school student from Miami-Dade County in the tennis ball toss and another elementary school student from Osceola County in the 50 Meter run.  In addition, there were many teenagers from high schools; I was excited when I saw the Athlete Delegation from Winter Park High School. 

To my surprise, there were also older athletes that were not student aged.  The oldest athlete I saw was probably in their 50s and looked like they had many years of experience at competing in Special Olympics.  They must really love it to keep doing it year after year.

I think the best reason to enjoy Special Olympics Florida is that it is not all about winning, as the Special Olympics Athlete’s Oath states.  The Oath is “Let me win.  But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt.”  On the first day of the State Games, my brother Max and another athlete with Down syndrome and Autism named Jacob were running in the 50 Meter race.  As they raced, Max and Jacob had so much fun watching their shadows that they did not care if they won the race.  They were both so happy and it made me proud to watch them.  Max won a Silver Medal for his 50 Meter race and Jacob won the Bronze medal.  There was a ceremony where the medals and ribbons are presented to the athletes and every athlete that participates gets a ribbon.  All the athletes are winners.

The final reason I think you should be a fan of Special Olympics is that the Florida State Summer Games were held in an awesome place, the ESPN Wide World of Sports.  The fields and facilities at the ESPN Wide World of Sports are amazing.  The baseball stadium is where the Atlanta Braves do their Spring Training.  There are restaurants and refreshments everywhere and there are shuttle carts to transport athletes and spectators around the park.  I think the best part of being at the ESPN Wide World of Sports on Friday is that I got an amazing view of the Space Shuttle Atlantis’s last launch.  It was fun to watch it with special people from all over the State of Florida.

As I have stated, there are so many reasons to be a fan of Florida Special Olympics.  Watching athletes with all sorts of disabilities at all different ages compete is a wonderful experience.  It is great to see how happy the athletes are and that it is not all about winning; it is about coming together as a community and having fun.  Being able to attend the Florida State Special Olympic Summer Games at the ESPN Wide World of Sports made the experience fun for spectators and very special for the athletes. 

I hope that now you are a fan of Florida Special Olympics!