The Iowa Special Olympic Summer Games will get underway in Ames this week.
Special Olympics spokesperson, Megan Filipi says the state summer games is their largest state competition of the whole year. “It’s our largest event of the whole year actually Thursday, Friday, Saturday May 16th, 17th, 18th. We’ve got about 2,500 Special Olympics athletes competing on the Iowa State campus over the course of those three days,” she says.
She says the event gets started with the torch run. “From Des Moines to Ames it starts in Des Moines on Thursday morning, and then about 15 of our local law enforcement departments relay a lit torch 38 miles up to Ames to the opening ceremonies that will take place at Hilton Coliseum,” Filipi says.
The Special Olympic games is an event for those with intellectual disabilities.
(By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City)