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A student carries a torch to help signify the official beginning of the Little Feet Meet at Freeman High School April 15, 2024. (Courtesy Henrico Schools)
On a sunny, hot Monday, 800 Henrico elementary schoolers flocked to Douglas S. Freeman High School for the annual “Little Feet Meet” hosted by Special Olympics Virginia.
The athletes – students with intellectual disabilities – were joined by their designated “buddies,” students without disabilities who were there to support them and to participate in a day of games, races, and prizes. A group of 400 high school volunteers from Freeman also came out to operate the different “stations,” which included an obstacle course, a 50-meter buddy race, a soccer shot game, and more.
Students as young as pre-kindergarten to as old as fifth grade were brought to the event on April 15 by their exceptional education teachers and teacher aides. Some elementary schools even gave the athletes and their buddies a big school-wide send-off, with classmates lining up outside to cheer them on with handmade signs and applause before the buses took off for Freeman.
On the outdoor fields, hundreds of young students in bright blue T-shirts flooded the different activity stations with Freeman volunteers in matching pink shirts. Both the athletes and their buddies wore the same shirt and completed all the same activities together in an effort to make sure everyone felt included and celebrated, said Pam Mines, Special Olympics Virginia’s regional director.
“It’s a unified event, and unified means everybody plays with each other, so there are no separate teams,” she said. “The partners and the athletes all wear the same colors.”
The athlete-buddy match ups were not just a one-day situation either, Mines said. All of the students practiced together for the Little Feet Meet for six to eight weeks in advance and many students were already friends within school clubs such as “Circle of Friends,” a program which helps elementary schoolers with disabilities connect with their non-disabled peers.
“They all play together, they go to school together, they eat together,” Mines said. “The goal is to create lifetime friendships, not just situational friendships. Things that, as they grow up, they will remember – going to school together and being friends outside of school.”
Students play a game during the Little Feet Meet at Freeman High School April 15, 2024. (Courtesy Henrico Schools)
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More than 30 Henrico elementary schools participated in this year’s annual event; it was the 13th year that Henrico Schools has hosted the meet.
Along with the many high school volunteers, Freeman’s principal John Marshall and Henrico Police officers helped at the opening ceremony torch lighting and Freeman’s women’s choir sang the national anthem before the games officially began.
Tyler Tweardy, a sophomore at Freeman, watched the buddies help their designated athletes complete each game, holding their hands while they waited in line for drinks and clapping for them as they finished each activity.
“They really care about one another, and it just makes me smile seeing all these kids bonding with each other,” he said.
The entire Freeman boys’ varsity baseball team also volunteered for the event, which senior player Lee Sowers said it does each year as a way to be more involved in the community.
“For me, it was just seeing how happy they would get,” Sowers said about the young athletes. “Running the races and doing the events, you could see how much they enjoyed it. I know it means a lot more to them than we even know.”
The younger students also were able to connect and play with the high school volunteers, who would help them when they got discouraged or had trouble completing the activities. Sarai Glenn, a high school sophomore, said that many of the preschoolers kept coming back to the obstacle course station she was volunteering at, willing to try the activity again even if they weren’t able to complete it before.
“Building a connection, working with them when they get upset and feel they can’t do it, we’ll be like, ‘Hey, let’s just try again,’” she said. “It’s not only about doing the obstacle course, but it’s also about working with the kids as well, teaching them to ask for help when they need it. And even if it’s a simple thing like holding onto your shirt, I had a couple kids do that, or they’re upset and want to hug you, you learn that body language and you’re like, ‘Oh wait, let’s help.’”
Two Henrico elementary students take turns playing a game with an oversized soccer ball during the Special Olympics Virginia Little Feet Meet April 15, 2024 at Freeman High School. (Liana Hardy/Henrico Citizen)
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Students’ parents and siblings also were invited to the event so that they could see their students building friendships and fostering connections, according to HCPS Exceptional Education Coordinator Laura Tully.
The goal is for everyone in the school community to participate – students with disabilities, their families, their peers, their teachers and IAs – and meet other students and teachers from different schools, Tully said.
“It’s great for parents to come and see that their student with a disability is just as involved in their school community as any other student or individual,” she said. “This event is also a really big morale booster for a lot of our staff, to come and be around other schools and teachers that are facing the same challenges in education but also just kind of seeing how beautiful it is for these friendships.”
Candace Saunders, the parent of a kindergartener with disabilities, came to the event for the first time this year, but plans to come every year after seeing how much her son enjoyed the activities and playing with all of the other students.
A student rolls a ball during the Little Feet Meet at Freeman High School April 15, 2024. (Courtesy Henrico Schools)
“I really enjoy the opportunity to be able to have him around other kids and be able to do some of the activities. It does really seem that all of the kids are included,” she said. “The older kids, they seem to interact really great with the younger kids, making sure that all the kids participate and they’re enjoying themselves.”
Reina Richter, a sophomore volunteer, said she hoped that the event would become a foundational memory for the younger students, encouraging them to keep being involved in their schools and boosting their confidence when they get older.
“When they get really excited, it just makes me feel really good because it just feels like I’m building some really core memories for them, and that makes me so happy, giving them memories to look back on” she said. “Because as a kid, all of my memories were a lot of time made by other people and what they represented to me. And you got to pass that on.”
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Liana Hardy is the Citizen’s Report for America Corps member and education reporter. Her position is dependent upon reader support; make a tax-deductible contribution to the Citizen through RFA here.
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