Special Olympics Iowa dedicates new headquarters

Special Olympics Iowa dedicated its new headquarters Sunday in Grimes. Special Olympics athlete Katie Meade was one of the people to speak at the dedication. She says the new building is one more thing that makes all of them happy and she says it’s a place to call “our own.” Special Olympics Iowa president, Rich Fellingham, says the new facility puts everyone under one roof. He says they have their offices, they have storage that they used to have to rent, they have training facilities to train coaches and athletes all in one place. Fellingham says people from all over the state will benefit from the new facility. He says there’s 12-thosuand athletes, 15-thousand volunteers and about two-thousand coaches are involved in Special Olympics Iowa. The land for the building in Grimes was donated, as is the cost of construction. He says the total cost of the building is about two-million dollars, and he says they want to raise two-and-a-half million dollars – part of which will go into an endowment. He says they need to raise about 200-thousand dollars to reach their goal. The building is located in Grimes just northwest of Des Moines.