Whangarei's budding Special Olympians took time to celebrate the founding of the movement with a picnic and some fun events at Mair Park yesterday.
Special Olympics began in 1968 when American Eunice Kennedy Shriver organised the First International Summer Games at Soldier Field in Chicago,Illinois.
The original concept was born in the early 1960s, when Shriver started a day camp for people with intellectual disability and saw that they were far more capable in sports and physical activities than experts had first thought.
Whangarei Special Olympics organised yesterday's fun event where all the competitors, some of whom came from residential care facilities in the district, had a great time taking on others in a non-competitive environment. Games included cricket, sack and three-legged races, overs and unders and ball games.
