Hello everyone, it’s been a while since I have been on here. For today’s post I will be telling you some of our highlights from Berlin. It was back in March when both Matthew and I had gotten an email invitation to be volunteers and take part in the Special Olympics World Summer Games in Berlin. We both felt so honoured that we got invited to be there. We got to be there for the whole games. For the first few days we were at our hotel volunteering at the welcome centre where we would greet the honoured guests and help them pick up all of their credentials. We also did two morning unified walks where we had some of the honoured guests join us. The first walk we did was we went to see The BrandenBurg Gate. It was definitely a lot bigger than I thought it would be. Then the other unified walk we did we went to see Check Point Charlie. The opening ceremonies were absolutely wonderful. It was so nice to see all of the different countries walk in to the famous Berlin Olympic Stadium. It was a pinch me moment for sure. I was so happy to see that when the Ukraine athletes walked in everyone got up and gave them the biggest cheer and a standing ovation. That’s one thing that I love about being part of Special Olympics. Everyone is always welcome to take part or be a part of Special Olympics. I think that is the best thing about Special Olympics they are very big for inclusion. We also had a bit of time to explore more of Berlin when we were not needed for volunteering. We got to see different pieces of the Berlin Wall. That was neat and getting to learn more about it while we were there. We also went to see where the Holocaust Memorial is. That was definitely an eye opening experience for both of us. I am very grateful that we were able to go there and learn more about it. It was definitely a heartbreaking point in our history that everyone should know about. We were able to get to watch a bunch of different sports at the one venue that we were volunteering at. We were able to watch Table Tennis, Bocce, Power lifting, Basketball, Badminton, Judo, Volleyball and Tennis. We spent our other time volunteering at the Special Olympics International Booth. When we were at the booth we would tell people more information about Special Olympics and everything that it has to offer. We also had games at our booth for people to and win different prizes that we were giving away. We also had beverages that we were giving away to everyone that stopped by our booth. One of the partners for the games is Coca-Cola they had provided refrigerators and beverages everywhere throughout the whole games. One night we went to the Berlin Zoo for the family night event. They had live music going and other family activities. We also did a group activity one day with some of the global messengers where we went to The Ritter Sport Chocolate store where they have a class that you can pay for where you learn more about their chocolate company and also where you get to make your very own chocolate bars. It was a really fun experience that I know we all enjoyed. One night we also got invited to join all of the global messengers with their families for a dinner. It was so nice to get to see them all and just get to know everyone a little bit better. We had a little bit of free time on our last day where we walked around Berlin close to where our hotel was and had lunch before heading back to our hotel to get ready for the closing ceremony. We had so many people walk with us down to The BrandenBurg Gate where the closing ceremony was. It was such a neat atmosphere with live music going on up on stage. We had ran into lots of people that we knew who we hadn’t gotten a chance to talk to during the games which was nice. At one point during the closing ceremony they had one athlete from each country come up one the stage. It was so cool to see all of the different countries that were they’re in Berlin. Overall both Matthew and I had such a wonderful time getting to volunteer during the games. It was so great that we got to run into some of our friends that were competing and got to watch them as well. We also got to meet lots of new wonderful people that I know for sure that we will get to see again at some point. It was such a pleasure and an honour to be at another world games for Special Olympics. I am so thrilled that I get to be apart of this incredible organization that has become another family for both Matthew and I. It really means so much for me to be able to make a difference being an advocate for other people who also have intellectual disabilities. I love seeing that this organization is making a huge difference in so many people lives with and without intellectual disabilities.
I hope that you enjoyed getting to read this long blog post from our trip to Berlin and getting to hear my experience about The Special Olympics World Summer Games. I also just wanted to take this moment before I finish to thank Berlin for hosting the games. Thank you to all of the volunteers that came out and helped make the games happen. I do know that all of the athletes do appreciate everything that you did to make these games run smoothly. I had such a wonderful experience in Germany. I would also like to thank all of the amazing partners that Special Olympics have to sponsor the games. Here’s just some of our photos. I hope you enjoy!
~Crystal~
