ISO - Illinois Special Olympics

This last weekend was Special Olympics. And boy what a weekend. My part in the whole scheme of thing was to help at the dining centers. I manned the salad bar. I've never had so much fun watching all of the unique salads be created. Many took scoops of every single topping resulting in mountains of food. Others skipped the topping and heading for the dressings, and their salads were more like soup. I've never seen a bigger mess either. There was ranch in the bacon, bacon in the cheese, cheese in the celery, and french dressing all down the sides of the table. Regardless, the athletes enjoyed the food. And we enjoyed serving it to them.

ISU had done the exact same menu for the past three years for this event. They had this thing down to a science. Everything was proportioned out with the exact count from previous years. Everything went very smoothly.

I also got the chance to volunteer for some of the events for special Olympics. My experience can be summed up just like that. It was very special. I feel very privileged to have been able to be a part of this event. These people are so full of happiness, love, and acceptance. Love and joy just radiates from their faces. One of my favorite things was seeing some of the athletes with five or six medals around their necks and proudly telling everyone what they got them for. Special Olympics is an amazing event and it was very cool to see the food service aspect of it, as well as being involved with the events and the athletes.