Unified Olympics join students of all stripes together

Team effort - Inclusive PE program matches Forest Grove students of varied abilities in games that support all players

By Andrew Miner

The Forest Grove News-Times, Feb 27, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Jonathan House / Pamplin Media Group

Chris Sullivan and Preston Harris of Forest Grove are good friends. Both played basketball last Saturday in a Unified Special Olympics event in Beaverton.

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Rummaging into lunch Saturday at Beaverton’s Five Oaks Middle School after a Special Olympics basketball game of three-on-three, Preston Harris, 12, eyed his friend Chris Sullivan’s bag of potato chips with a playful smile.

“No, those are mine,” said Sullivan, giggling from across the table. The boys play basketball and go to Forest Grove’s Tom McCall Upper Elementary School together, despite Chris being born with Down syndrome.

Both joined the Unified Special Olympics basketball team last January when the season began. The squad comprises 10 volunteer peer partners and 12 Special Olympics athletes, all roughly the same age and from the same schools.

Students from Tom McCall and Joseph Gale Elementary, also in Forest Grove, invited students from Beaverton and Hillsboro to attend Saturday’s jamboree. All together, nearly 100 people attended, including dozens of volunteers and Special Olympians.

When the team rosters opened up, dozens of kids from Forest Grove schools volunteered. So many, in fact, that some were turned down, according to volunteer coach Susan Dieter, an adapted PE specialist. Dieter works with children at multiple schools and may visit six different schools each day in the district. She also volunteers with Joseph Gale special education teacher Jill Hertel to coach the two Forest Grove teams.

Sharing hugs

Displaying a toothy smile, Sullivan unsealed his bag of chips and munched quietly as sweat accumulated on his brow.

Minutes before, he and Harris had shared the ball – and hugs – after each other’s attempts at the hoop.

Harris’s mother, Claudette Harris, smiled as the boys hugged after Preston scored with a lay-up.

“He’s done really well,” she said. “He doesn’t hog the ball and really enjoys playing.”

Harris’s other son, Austin, is a 16-year-old junior at Forest Grove High School, a swimmer and a lover of clay art. He also is affected by Fragile X Syndrome, an inherited mental impairment that affects cognitive and physical abilities.

Often associated with autism and severe cognitive disabilities, Fragile X, also known as Martin-Bell Syndrome, is the most commonly known single gene cause of autism, according to the National Fragile X Foundation. Austin attended the jamboree as a volunteer, cheering for his brother from the sidelines.

“He’s never been limited from a medical standpoint,” Harris said. Her other three children were not born with the condition.

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