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Special Olympics Idaho is a non-profit organization that provides training and athletic competition in 14 Olympic-type sports, year-round and free of charge to over 1,900 children and adults with intellectual disabilities throughout the state of Idaho.

Special Olympics programs, with over 3,000 volunteers, offer athletes continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in a sharing of gifts, skill, and friendship with their families, other Special Olympics athletes and the community.

Description:
Our Philosophy
Special Olympics is founded on the belief that:

People with mental challenges can, with proper instruction and encouragement, learn, enjoy and benefit from participation in individual and team sports, adapted as necessary to meet the needs of those with special mental and physical limitations.

Consistent training, including physical conditioning and nutritional education, is essential to the development of sports skills; that competition among those of equal abilities is the most appropriate means of testing these skills, measuring progress and providing incentives for personal growth.

Through sports training and competition, people with mental challenges benefit physically, mentally, socially and spiritually; families are strengthened and the community at large, both through participation and observation, is united with people with mental challenges in an environment of equality, respect and acceptance.

History:
Special Olympics began in 1968 when Eunice Kennedy Shriver organized the First International Special Olympics Games at Soldier Field, in Chicago, Illinois. The concept was born in the early 1960s when Mrs. Shriver started a day camp for people with mental challenges. She saw that people with mental challenges were far more capable in sports and physical activities than many experts thought. Since 1968, millions of children and adults with mental challenges have participated in Special Olympics programs throughout the world.

Today there are accredited Special Olympics programs in more than 143 countries around the world, and more continue to be developed. Special Olympics Chapters are established in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, the Virgin Islands, and American Samoa. About 25,000 communities in the United States have Special Olympics programs.

Since the very first statewide Summer Meet in 1970 at Idaho State University in Pocatello, Special Olympics Idaho has offered sports training and athletic competition to children and adults with mental retardation -- year-round, free of charge and state-wide.

Contact person: Shanna Endow, Volunteer and Outreach Manager, (208) 323-0482 ext. 14, (email)
Office fax number: (208) 323-0486

Address:

405 South 8th Street, Suite 1-201 Boise, ID 83702 (See a map)

Web Site: http://www.idso.org

Directions:

Located in Bodo above 8th St. Wine Co. and the Funny Bone.