News & Media

Athletes Meet, Shoot Hoops with the NBA's Andre Drummond 

Special Olympics Connecticut athletes were thrilled to meet NBA Player, former UConn Husky and Special Olympics Global Ambassador Andre Drummond during a meet & greet event hosted by coordinators and coaches from our Waterbury PAL team on June 23rd. The event featured the athletes participating in a Q&A with Drummond, taking pictures with him, getting autographed basketballs and shooting hoops with the celebrity guest. Athletes who were unable to attend the in-person meet & greet were treated to a Q&A session with Drummond on Zoom later that day. Additionally, Drummond invited SOCT athletes, ages 8-18, to participate in his summer basketball camp which will take place at Yale later this month at no cost. Photo by volunteer Chad Lyons.

Global Messengers Volunteer at the Otis Olympics 

Global Messengers Kimberly Malan, Peter Klein, Bobby Osborne, Jackson Berlin-Whitehead, Anthony Thibeault, Jake Segla and Alicia Rostkowski helped out at the Otis Olympics, an athletic contest for employees of our sponsor company held at Otis Headquarters in Farmington on July 8th. The roles were reversed - instead of Otis employees helping to run our Games, our athletes ran the events! Here's Kimberly's recap:

Everyone enjoyed some delicious pizza from SLICE of New Haven.  

There were 3 stations for the Otis teams to participate in. They were: 

• Bowling 

• Soccer 

• Speed Walking 

At each station there were Global Messengers (GMs) to help. At the bowling they had to reset the pins, at soccer the GMs had to pass the soccer ball to the next competitor, at speed walking - GMs had to be the “runner” giving  the score sheet of the competitors who were racing to the SOCT staff so they could write down their times. GMs also showed Otis employees how to do each event. GMs and the Otis teams had a lot of fun at the Otis Olympics.

Torello Golfs 100 for Special Olympics

Longtime supporter Nick Torello achieved his charitable goal of playing 100 holes of golf for Special Olympics Connecticut, surrounded by family and friends, at the Pine Orchard Yacht and Country Club in Branford on June 23rd. For his efforts, he raised over $14,000 for our athletes. Photo by SOCT Volunteer Photographer TJ Brocuglio.

SOCT Athletes Represent at the Walter Camp Golf Tournament

Global Messengers Bobby Peterson and Mike Hedrick were special guests at this year's Walter Camp Football Foundation Golf Tournament on July 13th. SOCT's Katie Dennett and Alexis Szymecki also attended the event and received generous donations from players who wanted to support our athletes.