Tabor Academy will welcome more than a dozen Special Olympic basketball teams to their campus to participate in their 1st Valentine’s Day Hoops Tournament on Sunday, February 14, beginning at 10:00 am. The event is free and open to the public and takes place in the Fish Center for Health and Athletics at 256 Front Street, Marion, MA.
The participating teams will come from all over the Massachusetts’ South Coast as well as Cape Cod, from as close as Wareham and as far as Hyannis and Plymouth. Teams will be a mix of unified teams – a combination of intellectual impaired athletes and partners without intellectual disabilities – and traditional Special Olympics teams. There will be teams in two divisions: ages 13-21 and ages 22+.
Tabor Academy students, who have been hosting a Young Athletes program in conjunction with Special Olympics each Sunday this fall and winter, will lead the entire event. Student volunteers will be doing everything from refereeing and managing the scoreboard to running team check-ins and being supportive fans.
The Valentine’s Day Hoops Tournament will run in conjunction with the kick-off of Tabor’s R-word Campaign. This national campaign was created to spreads awareness about the stigmas around intellectually impaired people and the damage that the r-word can cause. The R-word Campaign is a pledge that people across the country and the world have taken to eliminate the word “retard(ed)” from their vocabulary.
Director of Communications Kerry Saltonstall said, “Our students are so enthusiastic about this new relationship forged with Special Olympics, and with the athletes and their families. It has become a top service interest on campus. We hope the community will join us and tap into the positive energy and spirit of these games on February 14 from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm.”