Youthful Countdown Celebration in POLAND

Approximately 4,300 students of general and special schools in Warsaw gathered on 9 June to take part in the 15-month countdown to the 2010 Special Olympics European Summer Games.  

The educational picnic “Join us, Let’s Fly a kite”, was held under the patronage of the Warsaw city Mayor, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, outside the Royal Castle, by the Vistula River. The highlight of the day was flying kites together as a symbol of unity and cooperation between young people with and without intellectual disabilities who jointly set up the kites at the venue.

The event was organized by the Special Olympics European Summer Games 2010 Foundation as part of the “SO Get It Into It” educational program, designed for teachers and students from general high schools.  “Such initiatives enable us to raise awareness of children and youth about the “difference” of people with intellectual disability and to help them understand that it doesn’t mean being less talented, “said Director Boguslaw Galazka. “We count on their enthusiastic support for the 2010 Special Olympics European Summer Games in Warsaw (18-24 September 2010),” he emphasized.
 

The program of picnic included sport games such as power lifting, volleyball, surfing rodeo, climbing, bungee or football. Among other activities picnic participants enjoyed painting workshops, Quizz on Special Olympics, educational pantomime with artists on the subject of similarities and differences. A musical show on stage, ran by popular Polish television journalists Anna Popek and Michal Olszanski, included the performances of ELRUIDO hip-hop band, HAPPYSAD rock group and Brawo Band, a group from the local house of culture in Warsaw’s Bielany district.    

Photo: Adam Nurkiewicz