LOCATION:  Dominguez Hall: Colorado Mesa University 1100 North Ave, Grand Junction, CO 81501

EVENT DETAILS:

Through the Healthy Athletes® program, Special Olympics Colorado athletes receive free screenings in a fun, welcoming environment that removes the anxiety and fear individuals with ID often experience when faced with a visit to the doctor or dentist. Our mission is to improve each athlete’s health and fitness, leading to enhanced sports experience and improved well-being.

Screenings Offered

Fit Feet offers podiatric screenings to evaluate ankles, feet, and lower extremity biomechanics. The mission of the Special Olympics Fit Feet is to improve the quality of life and long-term health of Special Olympics athletes and people with intellectual disabilities. Fit Feet screenings give athletes, coaches and caregivers a better understanding of any existing and previously unknown foot problems. 

FUNfitness provides athletes the opportunity to be screened for flexibility of hamstring, calf, shoulder rotator and hip flexor muscles; functional strength of the abdominal and lower extremity muscles; and balance. During these screenings physical therapists, physical therapist assistants, and physical therapist or physical therapist assistant students work with athletes and coaches to improve optimal function in sports training and competition, prevention of or reduced risk for injury and recommending exercises and other helpful strategies.

Health Promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. It moves beyond a focus on individual behavior towards a wide range of social and environmental interventions. Special Olympics Health Promotion’s goal is to improve the quality of life and long-term health of Special Olympics athletes through education on healthy behaviors, screening and medical referrals when appropriate. Objectives of Health Promotion are to: deliver screening and referral services, provide health education to encourage and enhance healthy behaviors, reduce risky behaviors, improve self-efficacy and self-advocacy, and increase the investment of health promotion leaders for people with intellectual disabilities.

The Special Smiles discipline of Healthy Athletes provides comprehensive oral health care information, including offering free dental screenings and instructions on correct brushing and flossing techniques to participating Special Olympics athletes.

Strong Minds is an interactive learning activity focused on developing adaptive coping skills. Competition provides a natural opportunity to develop active strategies for maintaining emotional wellness under stress, such as: thinking positive thoughts, releasing stress and connecting with others. Through Strong Minds, Athletes identify the good resources they have within themselves to manage stressful situations. It empowers them to understand how they can help themselves and gives them the coping strategies to do so.

Healthy Young Athletes is a holistic pediatric screening offered to children 2 – 7 years old, with and without Intellectual Disabilities, as an initial offering by Healthy Athletes. The screening can be implemented across the three Young Athletes implementation models—school, community, and home—as well as in conjunction with large-scale Healthy Athletes events. The screening is intended to complement a child’s primary care and provides an additional review of the child’s health and development. It is therefore paired with a comprehensive referral and community support strategy that links families with local providers, community services, and education resources for follow-up and continued support. It also serves as an educational experience to increase health and development knowledge amongst parents and caregivers. This is achieved by identifying medical, developmental, and behavioral concerns that parents and caregivers may have about their child and directing them to the appropriate resources.

The following health disciplines have AM, All Day, Mid-Day and PM shifts available

The Healthy Hearing discipline of Healthy Athletes provides comprehensive hearing screenings and follow-up recommendations. The main goals of this program are to inform athletes, parents, coaches or caregivers about the detection of possible ear and hearing problems, recommend follow-up as needed, and to promote the necessity of regular ear and hearing screenings.

The Special Olympics Opening Eyes® program is a vision and eye health screening in partnership with the Lions Club International Foundation. Led by volunteer vision care professionals, Opening Eyes is able to offer prescription eyewear, sunglasses, and sports goggles to Special Olympics Colorado athletes.

MedFest was created to offer the physical exam that all athletes need prior to participating in Special Olympics sports programming. It is sometimes the first exposure these athletes have to medical care. In many cases, life-threatening conditions have been found and subsequently treated thanks to MedFest. Led by volunteer physicians, nurses, physician assistants, and medical students, the MedFest screening consists of the following stations: medical history, height and weight, blood pressure, cardiology test, musculoskeletal test, orthopedic tests, abdominal evaluation, and a check out station.

CHECK-IN: Please allow yourself ample time to park and check-in at the volunteer check-in booth. Orientation and set-up for Healthy Athletes will start promptly at the start of the shift you sign up for in order to be open to athletes at 10:00 AM and again at 1:00 PM.

WHAT TO WEAR:  Each volunteer will receive a volunteer T-shirt specific to the Healthy Athletes discipline they are volunteering for to wear at the event, so you will be easily identifiable. Please wear comfortable clothing and shoes. 

MEALS: Lunch and Dinner will be provided to all volunteers who sign up for all day and 12 PM – 7 PM shifts.

PARKING: Free parking is available at Dominguez Hall

Questions? Please contact Jena Twete, Director of Inclusive Health, at jtwete@specialolympicsco.org.