This Thursday, March 20, hundreds of students from LaSalle and Catahoula will gather to participate in an event that’s as exceptional as its competitors. The LaSalle Parish School Special Olympics will convene at Jena High School’s football field beginning at 9:30 a.m. and will continue until all events are completed and the competing athletes proudly display their medals of achievement. Celebratory shouts and handclaps will be heard, and countless smiles will cross the faces of these exceptional athletes as they compete.
The LaSalle Parish School Special Olympics promotes inclusion, understanding and respect for students with disabilities through the annual sports event. This will be the 18th year La-Salle Parish has hosted the event, and it has grown astronomically in participants, volunteers and fans – including proud parents and relatives of the athletes.
“The Special Olympics is not just about kids getting medals,” said LPSB SPED Supervisor Jenene Bignar. “It breaks down barriers and shows what individuals with disabilities can do with the right support and opportunities.”
There are seven major categories in which students compete, and those categories are divided into subcategories based on participant numbers and individual abilities. Every participant receives a medal and stands on the awards podium as a winner.
One of the more recent and featured events is the unified race, created by the LPSB SPED staff, which includes school teams comprised of half special education and half regular education students. Regular education students are chosen to be on the individual unified race school teams based on personal character including being observed within the individual school settings interacting with and including students with disabilities during the normal school day. It is an honor for the regular ed students to join the unified team.
“The Unified Race is our most popular event,” Bignar said. “The State Department from the Special Olympics Organization came last year and watched it and later shared that it was the best event they had observed. They were completely blown away by it! They had other districts come and observe what we were doing so they could take it back to their Special Olympics events.”
She continued saying, “It has broken down barriers and helped to build relationships and understanding.”
During that same visit, the State Special Olympics Organization was duly impressed with the level of community support the local Special Olympics has. Community and volunteer turnout in the stands and on the fields each year is unsurpassed and includes various clubs and organizations from JHS and local LaSalle Parish entities including The LaSalle Parish Sheriff’s Department. The JHS softball and baseball teams, under the direction of coaches Jay and Sarah Roark, and the JHS Anchor Club under the sponsorship of Lici Powell and Brooke Glenn are instrumental in ensuring the event runs smoothly. Multiple local businesses have become sponsors. The LaSalle General Hospital therapists are also among the all-star team of supporters. Bignar admits to being ‘blown away’ by school and community support.
“The Sheriff’s Department provides and cooks food for us and LaSalle Printing donates trophies to all participating schools,” Bignar shared. “We have wide community support from families and a large crowd of parents who buy t-shirts and come and watch their kids on that day. Parents aren’t just in the stands; they’re on the field with the kids.”
Bignar continued to explain that the overwhelming levels of participation and numbers of volunteers build strong relationships that benefit and support special needs students. These students feel the impact in classrooms and in their personal lives.
“It builds confi- dence. Our kids have been heard bragging to school employees about the medals they’ve won, how they practiced and how determined they were to win! The Special Olympics gives them something to look forward to (because) many of them don’t participate in school sports,” she added, likening the medals they receive to school sports teams winning a State Championship in basketball or football.
LaSalle Parish Special Olympics paves the way for community-wide inclusion and positive social interaction and inclusion between students with special needs and the general student population. The local event showcases the gifts and talents of every student who competes and carries inclusion from the playing field into the school halls and classrooms. In 2024, K-12 DIVE reported that over 10,000 schools participated in Special Olympics nationwide, nine of those located within the borders of LaSalle Parish.
“Seeing these kids’ faces when they cross the finish line, throwing up their arms with pride and later standing on the podium to get their medals gets me every time,” Bignar concluded. “I wear my sunglasses because I always end up crying. It’s worth it – seeing them reach their goals and the pride that’s on their faces. It will stop you in your tracks.”
