By Andy Dahn
BLOOMINGTON – Members of Illinois Special Olympics are preparing for the State Championship weekend starting June 12th but are currently over 600 volunteers short.
Spokeswoman for Special Olympics Central Illinois Carolyn Klocek said volunteers will be properly trained and can help with a variety of activities.
““It’s not just timing and marking scores,” Klocek said. “It’s also things like escorting our athletes to the starting line and taking them to the awards stations when they finish the races. So there’s more escorting and hands on things that aren’t just sports specific.”
A big turnout is expected for the State Championships.
“Illinois takes pride in being at the front of the Special Olympics movement,” Klocek said. “There will be almost 4,000 athletes in town and statewide we have almost 22,000 athletes. So it’s a pretty big movement we have going on in Illinois.”
Klocek said volunteers don’t have to work alone.
“We have a lot of different work groups or community service groups that contact us that come out at the same time and want to be placed together and volunteer together,” Klocek said. “We can make that happen. Even if it’s just a group of friends, we can make them a group and get that taken care of as well.”
Volunteers are needed most for Friday afternoon and Saturday morning and afternoon shifts. More information on the championships and signing up to volunteer can be found at soill.org\summer.games.
Andy Dahn can be reached at [email protected].
