On September 30, students from the Middle and High School Youth Advisory Committee attended the Special Olympics Unified Banner School Youth Leadership Summit, held at SUNY Fredonia. This annual event is held by different schools throughout New York State to help students learn about ways to promote Inclusion and Acceptance for all students within their district.
Last year, Silver Creek was honored as one of two schools from Chautauqua County to be recognized at a National Unified Champion Banner School. This honor is given to schools that have established Unified sports programs, developed strong youth leadership, and had whole school engagement events allowing the students to come together to support their Unified teams and Special Olympics of NY.
The students were able to attend break out sessions that allowed them to learn more about being a youth leader, ways to coach/mentor their partners, as well as ways to help build lasting relationships with their peers of all abilities. Several students learned about the benefit of music therapy while others participated in a Community Circle. The goal of the community circle was to bring student leaders together from each school to discuss their programs, share ideas, brainstorm new ideas, celebrate the good and bring attention to what they feel needs to be worked on in our UCS sports program.
The group also met with Erica Raepple from Special Olympics NY to learn about how their participation in events like the Polar Plunge helps to sponsor Special Olympic athletes from across the state with the training. The schools in this session were able to discuss the different ways they raise money for their schools to participate in the Polar Plunge. The students enjoyed pizza, chips and water for lunch. Most stated their favorite part was dancing with the other schools after lunch. The event was a great team building activity for the group and provided many ideas to help expand the YAC activities here at Silver Creek.
Silver Creek has been a part of the Special Olympic Unified Program since 2020. The program started with the Unified Bowling and has expanded over the years to develop the Youth Advisory Committee (YAC), Unified Basketball, Unified E-Sports, and this year Unified Bocce. If you wish to learn more about YAC or Silver Creek’s Unified Programs, or make a donation to the team’s Polar Plunge efforts, please reach out to club advisor, Janet Decker at jdecker@silvercreekschools.org or leave a message at (716)934-2603, ext. 3434.
