Special Olympics Wisconsin
Letter from the President
By Dennis Alldridge, President of Special Olympics Wisconsin
2010 Special Olympics Global Congress, Marrakech, Morocco
The 2010 Global Congress was supported under the High Patronage of His Majesty King Mohammed VI of Morocco and Her Royal Highness Princess Lalla Amina. It was certainly a great honor and privilege for me to represent Wisconsin at this first ever Global Congress.
During the event, I was able to join more than 600 other delegates from all over the world to define the main pillars of the 2011-2015 strategic plan that will integrate more people with intellectual disabilities in their respective societies through sports. The work for the Global Congress started over a year ago with input sessions and surveys to working groups and a strategy summit, dialogue and debate have been getting to a point where the Special Olympics movement can unite and review the strategic plan. We were able to learn about the strategic plan and envision how to implement the plan into our home countries, cities and communities. We heard from powerful and well known speakers, we learned from the athletes, we shared and networked with our peers and left with a clear vision and map that will lead us all into the future.
The framework drafted by the strategic planning working groups is based upon five interlinked areas of activities and exploration. Advance Sports and Competitions, Build communities, Connect Fans and Funds, Define Movement Leadership and Establish Sustainable Capabilities. I participated in the Connect Fans and Funds group and explored the lofty Goal of "Creating a more efficient, diversified and sustainable fundraising system within the Movement that enables Special Olympics to double its operating revenues across all regions by the end of 2015". I also led the discussion group that explored the goal of "engaging our athletes in building a program in which they can learn and contribute through their active fundraising efforts". All of the key discussion points were recorded and will be integrated in to the next draft of the strategic plan that should be available by the end of August.
I was also able to meet up with Dasha Zakharova from Special Olympics Russia while I was there. Last year, Dasha spent time with the staff of Special Olympics Wisconsin as part of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Fellowship international exchange program. During the Global Congress, she was a mentor for Ekaterina Sazonova, an athlete from Moscow. She now is the Acting National Director in addition to her other job at Special Olympics Russia. She was also asked to translate the entire Global Congress documents into Russian…a gigantic job she said.
If you are interested in following the Global Congress you can learn more at www.specialolympics.org/globalcongress
From left to right: Ekaterina Sazonova, Special Olympics Russia athlete, Dennis Alldridge, President of Special Olympics Wisconsin and Dasha Zakharova, Acting National Director of Special Olympics Russia
