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In the spirit of the holidays, Special Olympics Iowa is featuring 12 Days of Athletes throughout the month of December. In honor of these amazing athletes, please consider making your year-end donation to Special Olympics Iowa. If your donation is received by December 31, it will be DOUBLED!

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Name: Brent Oberhelman
Age: 24
Delegation: Humboldt, North Central Area
SOIA sports I participates in: bowling, basketball, athletics (100 meter dash and mini javelin)

What is your favorite part of Special Olympics? My favorite part of Special Olympics is bowling and running in track and field.

What is a fun fact about yourself? I LOVE NFL football and can tell people statistics about many players and games from any year in history along with present players and game stats. My favorite team is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I have been to seven NFL stadiums including the Buccaneers stadium.

What is your favorite part about the holiday season? My favorite part of Christmas is being with family and getting presents!!

In the spirit of the holidays, Special Olympics Iowa is featuring 12 Days of Athletes throughout the month of December. In honor of these amazing athletes, please consider making your year-end donation to Special Olympics Iowa. If your donation is received by December 31, it will be DOUBLED!

DONATE NOW!

Name: Bobby Johnson
Age: 27
Delegation: Waterloo Goodwill, Northeast Area
SOIA sports I participate in: bowling, basketball skills, challenge days, bocce, athletics (100m wheelchair race, softball throw)

What does Special Olympics mean to you? Special Olympics gives me the opportunity to be social and stay in shape and spend time with my team of friends and make new ones. It also gives me the opportunity to be competitive. I especially love bowling.

What is a fun fact about yourself? I am a diehard Dallas Cowboys fan, and my three-year-old niece has me wrapped around her little finger…but I wouldn’t have it any other way. My friends say that I am sociable, funny, have a big heart and have the ability to adapt when things don’t go as planned. I also have the ability to touch people’s hearts as we experienced during my most recent hospital stay.

What is your favorite part about the holiday season? My favorite part of the holiday season is spending time with family and friends. I love Christmas because I like seeing all the different decorations that people put up. We have a tradition in our family where we all gather at our house for a big family and friends dinner and play different games…including BINGO and LCR.

In the spirit of the holidays, Special Olympics Iowa is featuring 12 Days of Athletes throughout the month of December. In honor of these amazing athletes, please consider making your year-end donation to Special Olympics Iowa. If your donation is received by December 31, it will be DOUBLED!

DONATE NOW!

 Name:  Taylor Gross
Age: I turned 19 Dec. 4!
Delegation: IKM-Manning High School, Southwest Area
SOIA sports I participate in: bowling, basketball skills and athletics

What is your favorite part of Special Olympics? My favorite part is bowling. I love to practice bowing with my buddies and make it to state to get a medal.

What is a fun fact about yourself? I am a softball manager/player and a basketball manager for the varsity teams at school. I am a senior this year.

What is your favorite part about the holiday season? Giving presents to people.

In the spirit of the holidays, Special Olympics Iowa is featuring 12 Days of Athletes throughout the month of December. In honor of these amazing athletes, please consider making your year-end donation to Special Olympics Iowa. If your donation is received by December 31, it will be DOUBLED!

DONATE NOW!

 Name: Melissa Silver
Age: 26
Delegation: Leon SIRF, South Central Area
SOIA sports I participate in: bowling, athletics (50 m dash and softball throw), basketball skills, softball skills and equestrian

What is your favorite part of Special Olympics? My favorite part is bowling.

What is a fun fact about yourself? I love to ride horses with my mom and sister, Abby.  My favorite food is meatball pizza.

What is your favorite part about the holiday season? My favorite thing about Christmas is that my sister Sam comes back to see us.

The Spahn and Rose Lumber Company, based out of Dubuque, has been a sponsor of the Special Olympics Iowa Winter Games for more than 10 years. Like many of SOIA’s sponsors, the company has gone beyond monetary donations, with employees volunteering their time to make the Winter Games a success.

Dan Wachtel, head of the IT department at Spahn and Rose, began volunteering at Alpine skiing events because a former volunteer asked for his help with setting up the race courses.

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The fourth annual Iowa Miss Amazing Pageant will be held January 29-30 at Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs. The mission of the Miss Amazing organization is to provide opportunities for girls and women with disabilities to gain confidence in a supportive and fun environment!

The pageant will have a new layout for 2016 that organizers hope will be more efficient for the growing number of participants. The new format will feature a two-day show and full areas of competition both days. Rising Stars, Pre-teens, Junior Teens and Teens will participate on Friday, January 29, while Junior Miss, Miss, Senior Miss and Shooting Stars will participate on Saturday, January 30. Girls ages five and older can participate.

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In the spirit of the holidays, Special Olympics Iowa is featuring 12 Days of Athletes throughout the month of December. In honor of these amazing athletes, please consider making your year-end donation to Special Olympics Iowa. If your donation is received by December 31, it will be DOUBLED! Gifts on #GivingTuesday (Dec. 1) will be TRIPLED!

DONATE NOW

Day 1

Name: Isaac Youngblood
Age: 20
Delegation: Marshalltown Bobcats, Central Area

What does Special Olympics mean to you? Special Olympics means that I get to meet new people.

What is a fun fact about yourself? I am very funny

What is your favorite part about the holiday season? I get to see my family.

Rachel Bosworth has been named the Law Enforcement Torch Run (LETR) Marketing and Event Coordinator for Special Olympics Iowa. She began her position in November.

She will help coordinate LETR events such as Cop on Top, Final Leg, Over the Edge, Pigskin Madness, Polar Plunges®, Tip a Cop and more.

Bosworth graduated from Coe College in 2015 with a degree in business administration and public relations. She has previously worked with the Alzheimer’s Association as a community outreach and events intern and with The Blue Zones Project as a marketing intern.

She has a volunteer history with Special Olympics, helping at Summer Games during her middle school and high school career.

Please join us in welcoming her to the state office team!

Thank you to all of our amazing athletes who submitted designs for our 2015 holiday card! We had a record number of entries this year and we loved them all so much, we could not pick just one!

The first artist selected was Tasha Conklin, a 23-year-old athlete from Sergeant Bluff. She was so excited her artwork was selected, that she feels like she won another Special Olympics medal!

The second artist selected was Tomi DeGrado from Marshalltown, who is also 23 years old. She created her design using thumb art, which she often does for cards and thank you notes.

Congratulations to Tasha and Tomi!

Artwork above by Tasha Conklin. Artwork below by Tomi DeGrado.