Special Olympics Reflection by Liam Garner

This reflection was written by Liam Garner, who participated in the Elevation WorkCamp to the Illinois Special Olympics in June. He delivered this at our WorkCamp Vespers worship service in August.

Hello, all you folks out there in Sermon land. I'm not really that big on speechwriting. Honestly, the first thing I want to do is yell out, "Hi Mom."

But you got me up here to talk about the Special Olympics Workcamp, so I guess I'll do that. It was an experience, to say the least. It was way, way down in the center of the land of Lincoln. I was in charge of (mostly) being a Bocce pin monkey. My job was to retrieve the balls, the palena (polena, palina, polina…How do you pronounce it?), and to settle measurement disputes. I ran around the course, volunteering for the guys running the matches, just like everyone else.

It was kind of monotonous work, and hot as you-know-where, plus we all came down with sunburn. In some degree or the other. It was a very long ride back to the church, from the church, and to and from Fourth Pres. The only snack I had for a lot of the trip was two packs of honey-roasted peanuts. Now I love them. I had to sit in the back of the one bus that smelled like a rancid can of Coke. Partly because, on the first leg of the trip, the guy in front of me rested his coke on my back while I was stooping to pick up something. Predictably, I had to sit up, so for the rest of the trip, I had a jacket, an iPod cover, a shirt, and my volunteered spot in the car that reeked of day-old coke. On top of that, I had to be in the same room with a bunch of guys who snored like woodchippers and one guy who took 20 minutes to fully inflate his air mattress with a VERY LOUD fan. I still have the taste of the bad pickle I accidentally ate somewhere in my mouth. I had to pay for a docking port when my iPod ran out of juice. And for some reason I liked it all.

I also met some people I started to like. There was that one judge who was able to keep his calm no matter how often the players would throw the polena (just leave it at that) out of bounds. Plus this one girl who could be "gracious about her wins." She could hug the loser without doing it as part of an act. Another girl who would freely admit that she didn't care about winning or losing, she just wanted to make her dad proud that she got there, then accepted her loss just fine. There were plenty of other guys too numerous to mention, and these ones I just mentioned, I practically picked their names out of a hat. Well, not really, but they were good examples.

I don't know why I have such big memories of that place. Maybe it was the carnival rides we were treated to at the end. But I think it was being around people and volunteering their aid. We were able to help the little guy, even if we sweated our buns off doing it. And the next trip might be just as cool, if not cooler, than the last one.

If you were listening earlier, you'd know that it wouldn't take much.

Liam Garner Satisfied customer, Work Camp '08