Every year students with physical and/or intellectual disabilities from local districts compete in the Goody Triathlon, an adaptive 5k or 10k triathlon including swimming, biking and running. The students are paired up with peer mentors to help them throughout the day. Having the peer mentors along is so amazing for everyone involved. The students with disabilities feel like rockstars because they have "fans"! Our past peer mentors talk about the amazing experience long after it is complete and often ask to be able to go again! They become friends with the peers and continue that friendship throughout their school careers.
We want to be able to have more students witness this amazing event showing kindness and acceptance! Unfortunately only about 10 students get to be peer mentors each year. In a school of approximately 950 students, that is a very small percentage. Could you imagine what a middle school's culture would be like if more students could experience this day? While this project still wouldn't allow every student to attend, it would allow more students to see what their peers with disabilities really are capable of!
This project would allow us to send a bus full of "fans" to cheer on their peers with special needs in what many consider the best day of the year! They will be able to see the smiles on their peer's faces as they cross the finish line and receive their medal. They will be able to watch peers, like themselves, show kindness and acceptance to some amazing students! Our hope is that these fans would then be leaders in our school when it comes to displaying kindness and acceptance to all students!
About my class
Every year students with physical and/or intellectual disabilities from local districts compete in the Goody Triathlon, an adaptive 5k or 10k triathlon including swimming, biking and running. The students are paired up with peer mentors to help them throughout the day. Having the peer mentors along is so amazing for everyone involved. The students with disabilities feel like rockstars because they have "fans"! Our past peer mentors talk about the amazing experience long after it is complete and often ask to be able to go again! They become friends with the peers and continue that friendship throughout their school careers.
We want to be able to have more students witness this amazing event showing kindness and acceptance! Unfortunately only about 10 students get to be peer mentors each year. In a school of approximately 950 students, that is a very small percentage. Could you imagine what a middle school's culture would be like if more students could experience this day? While this project still wouldn't allow every student to attend, it would allow more students to see what their peers with disabilities really are capable of!
This project would allow us to send a bus full of "fans" to cheer on their peers with special needs in what many consider the best day of the year! They will be able to see the smiles on their peer's faces as they cross the finish line and receive their medal. They will be able to watch peers, like themselves, show kindness and acceptance to some amazing students! Our hope is that these fans would then be leaders in our school when it comes to displaying kindness and acceptance to all students!