The Special Olympics Wisconsin Health & Wellness team partnered with University of Wisconsin-Madison to host Fitness Station at Indoor Sports Tournament this spring. Fitness Station coincided with multiple Healthy Athletes disciplines including Healthy Hearing and Special Smiles, as well as the 3v3 traditional and Unified basketball tournaments.
The IST Fitness Station staff consisted of second year student volunteers frpm UW-Madison’s Physical Therapy program who created content to supplement existing Fit5 materials and set up various drills and challenges at UW-Oshkosh’s Kolf Center. Special Olympics Wisconsin athletes received instructionals on the basics of physical activity—including strength, endurance, flexibility, balance—and then incorporated those trainings into activities like push-ups, planks, and single-leg stance tests.
SOWI athletes earned some excellent tips and tricks to make themselves stronger. However, Fitness Station also provided an important event for the UW-Madison students whose participation provided a diversified experience toward their own service learning requirements.
“The overarching goal of our service learning requirement is to teach us how to work collaboratively with a community organization using our training as movement experts, but respective the organization’s autonomy and understanding the community we serve,” UW-Madison Doctor of Physical Therapy student Ellie VanTilberg said.
“We administered materials and promoted physical fitness… and it gave us an opportunity to work with people with intellectual disabilities,” she added. “There were some intense plank competitions between the athletes, student volunteers, and SOWI staff!”
Check out our photo album of Fitness Station at IST on Flickr.
