This coming March will be the tenth anniversary of China’s first Special Olympics National. Games. Those Games were held in Shenzhen. I had the honor of speaking at the Opening Ceremonies of the Games. But I am even happier to be here tonight because the Special Olympics Movement has seen extraordinary changes since then.
Here are the facts: --
Of the 15 nations which have sent delegations to these Shanghai Games, seven didn’t even have a Program ten years ago! The number of athletes in the eight nations which did have a Special Olympics Program ten years ago has skyrocketed, and in many cases, more than tripled. In the past ten years, not only have seven Asia-Pacific nations become new members of Special Olympics, they have done so with notable success. Indonesia’s Program for example, was founded in 1989, and in seven short years has created a Board of Directors which reads like the “Who’s Who” of their business and intellectual world. The wife of the Governor of Jakarta sits on that Board.
Thailand’s Special Olympics Board of Directors boasts of 14 captains of industry, CEOs, Board Chairs, Executive Directors, Presidents, Managing Directors and Vice Presidents, all of large and well-respected businesses. The list of all the occupations of the Board Members from these 15 nations are impressive and diverse. There are prominent civil servants, film producers, educators, politicians, journalists, doctors, psychiatrists, and even lawyers, like myself. Why are all of these people involved with Special Olympics? No one knows for sure. But, let me tell you some things I do know.
Ten years ago I gave a speech which I labeled: “Special Olympics Uniting the World”. That was a very grand title for any speech. Critics asserted that Special Olympics cannot presume to be “Uniting the World”. Ten years ago we were in 70 countries; today we are in 143 countries. Ten years ago we had 600,000 athletes, -- today we have twice as many, 1,250,000 athletes. Many others are waiting to join. So clearly Special Olympics is making strides toward reaching the goal of uniting the world. More importantly, however, is the fact that we can meet that goal.
How and why can we do so? Here are some of the reasons: --
First: Special Olympics is already the largest amateur sports organization in the world with 1,250,000 athletes participating and 1,062,164 Volunteers doing whatever needs to be done.
Second: Special Olympics is growing in size faster than any sports organization. By the year 2003, we expect as many as 2,500,000 or 3,000,000 athletes to be enrolled.
Third: Special Olympics is the only, amateur sports organization which enrolls older people as well as young; people of all political parties, all nationalities, all races, all religions, and from every economic level, from poverty to wealth. No one has to pay admission or any fee to participate.
Fourth: Special Olympics focuses the world’s attention on the number one disability in the world, mental retardation. It is estimated that approximately 170,000,000 people on earth have mental retardation and that number continues to grow year-by-year.
Fifth: Special Olympics includes and encourages the athlete’s entire family and in many cases, friends, neighbors, and the whole community to participate.
Sixth:. Special Olympics is not an occasional happening. We operate, day by day, month by month, and year by year. The sun never sets on Special Olympics. When all of us are asleep here in China, somewhere else in the world there are athletes stretching and warming up for training sessions, competitions, or for Local, or Area, or National, and now, for Continental Games. This makes Special Olympics a daily, not an annual, or bi-annual event.
Seventh: Special Olympics has created “Unified Sports”
So, when I say Special Olympics is “uniting the world,” I mean that we are uniting people in a universal effort to provide continuous help to those most in need of our compassion and our assistance.
Twenty-eight years ago in 1968, my wife, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, started Special Olympics with 1,200 athletes. No one, especially not her husband, would have predicted the unprecedented success, worldwide, which Special Olympics has already achieved. So all of us together must be doing something blessed by God, or by Allah, or Buddah, by all supernatural powers.
Just pause for 15 seconds. Ask yourselves now if any other sports organization on earth has grown from 1,200 athletes in 1968, to 1,250,000 athletes in 1996. What other sports organization in history has achieved full-blown, Olympic status so quickly, and the right to use the very word “Olympics” in our official title, “Special Olympics.” The answer is none.
What other sports organization now, or at any other time, has enrolled 1,062,164 listed Volunteers in its work, in 143 countries! What other sports organization has the unqualified endorsement of Fidel Castro and Ronald Reagan; of Nelson Mandela in Southernmost Africa, and the Eskimo Leader, Augapak at the North Pole? Why does the six billion dollar leader of American Business, Ronald Perelman, help us with Special Olympics alongside the $6,000 a year President of Sierra Leone? What other non-profit organization has been named “The Most Credible Charity” by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, the largest and most respected periodical dedicated to the world of philanthropic enterprises? The answer again is NONE. Now, let me ask you some questions which relate specifically to your business interests:
What other charity is operational now in practically every country where you do business, and will be in every country by the year 2007?
What other charity has the support of the highest government leaders everywhere?
What other charity can give you entree to those government and political leaders?
What other charity can increase your employee morale simply to be involved by you encouraging them?
What other charity can give you the opportunity to do something together with your local employees and their communities everywhere you do business?
What other charity can reveal you not only as a great money-making company, but as one willing to take back to the local communities where you are doing business? You would be making friends and allies, not only money.
No other private philanthropy can provide you with these benefits and assets, -- everywhere you operate.
Wouldn’t you love to be part of the only organization in history ever created to serve the needs of human beings with mental retardation, -- all 170,000,000 of such persons now alive, alongside us, on this tiny spinning planet we call “Earth!!” None has ever been endorsed by such an array of politically powerful human beings. Kings and Queens; Presidents and Prime Ministers; Communists and Capitalists, 100 such leaders on every continent, endorse Special Olympics. Nor has any athletic movement ever been endorsed in writing in the 2,000-year history of the Roman Catholic Church, by an official letter, signed personally by the Pope!
Recently a Special Olympics long distance running school was launched in Tanzania in Africa! All by Volunteers. With no capital. They did it with no financial resources. The annual per capita income in Tanzania is $600. But, I venture a guess, even a prediction, that because of the work of these Volunteers, in 1999 our Special Olympics Marathon will be won by an athlete from Tanzania or Kenya. Their time for our Olympic Marathon will beat all but the best, the most coached, and most experienced Marathon Runners in the entire world!
Clearly, Special Olympics would be impossible without families and friends who volunteer, but help also comes from unexpected places.
All of us have ridden in Otis Elevators. But, did you ever think that an elevator company would sponsor an athletic program?. I never did. But thousands of Otis Elevator Company’s employees have given countless hours volunteering their time and their talents for Special Olympics.
Last year, Fleet Bank, the eighth largest banking system in The USA, decided to support Special Olympics. They have done this so successfully, that after sending out a mailing to top-tier banking clients requesting letters of support and encouragement to Special Olympics athletes shortly before our 1995 World Games, 3,000 personal letters were sent by clients of Fleet Bank to Special Olympics athletes all over the world!! Then, 1,000 Fleet Employees volunteered their services to work in our 1995 World Games. Many had to take vacation time to do so. All of this is Volunteer Time and Volunteer Money, new for the world, new for private businesses, new for law firms, new for medical doctors, and nurses, new for families, new for sports.
The Procter & Gamble-Company has said, “It’s not only good business for our company and our customers, but more importantly, our relationship with Special Olympics has benefitted some very special people”.
Coca-Cola says: “The worldwide reach of Special Olympics makes the program a perfect match for the global Coca-Cola system.. Because it is truly grassroots, Special Olympics allows our bottlers the opportunity to become involved on a local level, and give something back to the communities in which we do business.”
And then there’s Kodak, “People who associate Kodak with Special Olympics think we’re a good company to support such a worthwhile organization, plus it increases our credibility with them on a consumer level.”
Robert Fiondella, Chairman of Phoenix Home Life Insurance Company states, : “Special Olympics” helps athletes achieve their hopes and dreams through sports training and competition; Phoenix is committed to helping people realize their financial hopes and dreams. Together our work benefits both organizations.”
This is all pretty impressive. But our work has only begun!!
Special Olympics is the only worldwide, comprehensive sports organization which rises above nationalism. Thanks be to God, we do not rank countries by the number of medals won by their athletes, We do not send away 80% of all our participants with no rewards at all, no medals or citations, for their efforts. Special Olympics rewards human beings, not nations. We recognize that we are all created by God as one humanity, but we must struggle to achieve one humanity, under God, with liberty and justice for all. That may be the greatest challenge and goal for the 21st Century: -- Ours is not, and must not become a Movement for power, -- not political power, not economic power, not egocentric power.
Our distinguishing characteristic must continue to be SERVICE -- SERVICE -- to all with mental retardation, to all their parents and siblings, and to all who serve them in different ways -- as businesspersons, engineers, lawyers, politicians, doctors, financiers, social workers, teachers, academicians, volunteers, nurses, Board Members, et al.
What better way for you to send the message that you are not only profit-making businessmen, but you also serve your customers’ families, communities and nations.
Almost everyone in Special Olympics volunteers. The one million volunteers I have mentioned are people who volunteer annually in the Special Olympics Movement worldwide! Less than 500 paid employees manage the 1,250,000 Special Olympics athletes and the annual Games held in 143 countries. Volunteers make it possible for us to offer year-round athletic training for less than $100 per athlete per annum!! Less than $100. a year! No athletic program comes even close to that cost-benefit ratio.
These Asia-Pacific Games are a perfect example of how we manage to achieve that cost-benefit record. These Games would be an impossibility were it not for those who will be volunteering throughout the four-day event. For a country which is only just beginning to embrace the concept of volunteerism, these Games represent enormous progress. These Games also provide Special Olympics with a unique opportunity to educate the most highly populated country in the world, to tell them all about the abilities of people with mental retardation. Shanghai Oriental T.V. and CCTV with a potential audience of 1.4 billion people are both covering our Games this week.
The work will continue in Shanghai and across China after the flame goes out on the first Asia-Pacific Games.
With the help of corporations like yours, Special Olympics will expand our training programs, hold future Games, establish volunteer committees, and on and on. It will be only with your support that we can reach our goals and perhaps become the largest, unified sports program in world history, and the largest activity in history for the least respected members of our human family. You and we may well be the creators of, the motivators of, the financiers of, the leaders of the greatest “revolution from below” in human history.
