A Unified Spirit: Natalia Vela’s Journey to the 2025 CIF Commissioner’s Award
By Marvin Poquiz When you meet Natalia Vela, the first thing you notice is her bright smile. The second is how naturally she makes others ...
Looking Back: Volunteer Brings Light Show to 2016 Summer Games
A photography hobby of volunteer Shereef Moustafa’s turned into a dazzling light show for Special Olympics Southern California athletes at the 2016 Summer Games. Shereef, a volunteer since fall 2004, ...
Kaylena Mann: Coach On and Off the Field
By Naomi Cahill Kaylena Mann is no stranger to being on a sports team. The San Fernando Valley native has been a member of a synchronized swimming team, swam for ...
Giving for the Future
Fern Rudd, like any parent, wants to ensure her child’s future is secure – even long after she’s around to see his life unfold. Her son, Devon Thompson, is a ...
Officer to Coach: Scott Lazenby Does it All
Scott Lazenby wears a number of different hats, most important of all being a SWAT Crisis Negotiator Training Officer. But he also cherishes his involvement in Special Olympics through the ...
Jasmine Miles Becomes a Leader
Jasmine Miles grew up like so many others with intellectual disabilities. Children at school would treat her differently without ever getting to know her, while the rest of the children ...
Teacher Appreciation: Life Changing
More than four years ago, Thompson Garrard was presented with an opportunity that changed his life forever. Garrard, an avid golfer who wanted to spread his love for the game, ...
Father Lives Through Daughter’s World Games Experience
Lorenzo Aceves remembers walking around Los Angeles as a tourist during the 1984 Summer Olympics. He was hoping to get a glimpse of the action and the atmosphere inside the ...
An Eye-Opening Healthy Athletes Experience
By Naomi Cahill and Tracy McDannald Donna Wilson and her daughter, Vanessa, look at Special Olympics as more than a sports organization – thanks to an examination at a Healthy ...
Greeter Leans on T.E.A.M.
Together. Each other. Achieves. More. That’s how Kenny Goode interprets the concept of a team, thanks to his uncle, Peter. Kenny has played basketball for Temecula Valley since 2012, scoring ...