Special Olympics Med-Fest

How many of you guys do Special Olympics?  We have been doing it for the past 4 years now and my kids ABSOLUTELY love it.  We do a basketball skills competition (where kids compete individually in shooting, dribbling, and passing) as well as the track and field events (3 days of running, long jump, and relay races!).  Special Olympics is an awesome way for my kiddos to get exercise as well as work on building self-confidence.  I have never seen my kids look prouder (seriously brings tears to my eyes) as when they have receive a medal at the Special Olympics.

In order to be eligible to participate, every two years, students need updated medicals.  Special Olympics is so awesome (they know how difficult getting an updated medical for every student can be) that they put on a MedFest event every two years to help out.  For FREE, Special Olympics busses our kids to a place where volunteer medical professionals are available to complete these medical evaluations (blood pressure, heart rate, height, weight, etc).  We go to stations to get each part of the medical done and then get a free lunch before going back to school 

Many of my kids look forward to this "field trip to the doctor" as we call it.  But, we have a few students who REALLY struggle with going to the doctor in general, so this trip provides them with a lot of anxiety (especially the blood pressure part!).  Thanks to my fabulous coworker (and her Dad!), we got a blood pressure machine to practice with our kids!  They did great!  Even our students with the most anxiety took a turn (although, not gonna lie, there was a lot of whines, hand-holding, and even a few who wanted to sit in my lap!).  And now, my anxiety (and hopefully my kids' anxiety) is a little bit more at ease for this week's field trip!