Patrick, athlete from New Orleans had a goal of increasing his repititions in various exercises.  He completed the 6-week fitness program and attained his goal!

Selene greatly benefited from the Train Unique program. She stepped out of her comfort zone, enjoyed the friendships she made, and participated as a true team player, always encouraging others. The program gave her a wonderful opportunity to reduce screen time and focus on her health. She became more interested in drinking water and would often discuss the differences between healthy and unhealthy snacks. It was an amazing experience for her, and we look forward to hopefully participating again soon.

Mason enjoyed and benefited from the fitness program we completed. He is continuing to make progress with his weight management, strength, and motor skills.

Jason has gone from 188 to 177 in the last 6 months! His involvement in the recent fitness program has reinforced his commitment to a healthy lifestyle. He has purchased a fitness ball so he can do some exercises he learned from Fittness class. As a result of talks from the trainer at Unique Fittness and Zoom classes based on healthy living he took with Special Olympics Louisiana, he is more mindful on food portions, the importance of daily exercise, and the importance of staying hydrated while exercising. Because of successful outcomes, he has become more motivated to continue on his goal to stay healthy.

At our FUNFitness screening during our Flag Football Invitiational, we had an athlete come to the screening drinking an energy drink. We educated the athlete about proper hydration choices especially while exercising. Athlete decided to throw his energy drink away and grabbed a water.

Rachel from State Bowling was screened at Health Promotion. She was found to have a high blood pressure reading. We had her sit to the side and be medically cleared before bowling. Her parents have made a follow appointment to get her blood pressure checked.

Jason, who is participating in our Family Health Education pilot program, started to change their diet thanks to the first call. They are trying brand new fruits and vegetables and working on increasing their physical activity.

We have several of the athletes paying more attention to their nutrition habits, especially with regards to drinking water.  And a couple talking about continuing a workout routine. 

SOLA piloted a health and nutrition program with the University of Houston. Courtney, one of our SOLA athletes who took part in the program, and her family increased their fruit and veggie intake. They also started exercising more as a result of this program.

SOLA hosted a Health Promotion screening and found several athletes with high blood pressure. After sending the referrals out, several athletes followed up with their PCP. One athlete shared his thanks and that his doctor has told him he needs to watch his salt intake

One of our athletes, Kourtney, attended our one-day fitness expo in Lafayette back in October. Since then, she has implemented her own workout routine, lost about 50 pounds, and lowered her blood pressure! Kourtney says it is important to eat healthy and do some form of exercise everyday for 30 minutes.

One of SOLA’s Health Messengers, Michael, spoke to the St. Charles Parish ARC about healthy eating and nutrition. After speaking with them he led them in group exercises. “I want people to know how Special Olympics changed my life.” “Speaking to the public or organizations is very personal to me. I am able to tell them my story of where I was to where I am now in my life. Individuals with intellectual disabilities are vital citizens in the community and I bring awareness of how the Special Olympics has given me the inspiration and motivation to be a better representation of me. My goal is to be an example of how Special Olympics is changing lives through sports.”

One of our Health Messengers, Josh, has been active in our community collaborative meetings. He has been a huge help getting thoughts and opinions from other athletes and bringing them to meetings. He is helping the collaborative plan a one-day fitness expo for athletes in Mandeville.

One of our athletes from the Northwest region of the state participated in the Medfest screening. The athlete had a history of epilepsy, but had not been seen in a while. During the screening, it was found that the athlete had a seizure in the past month and still hadn’t been seen. Our clinical director worked with the family to make sure the athlete had a doctor to go to within the month.

One of our athletes shared that he has recently started a habit of walking everyday with his aunt. This has helped him lose over 30 pounds!

Tyler has always been active. Since a young child Tyler loved walking everywhere, running, climbing and swimming. Tyler walked the yards and fields of his and his grandparents homes, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Tyler learned to swim as an infant with floaters and then one lesson from his mom. She demonstrated to him how to hold his breath not to breathe water and how to blow air out under the water. Tyler stepped down the pool ladder, went under, held his breath, and just looked around under the water. He jumped in and swam ever since. Tyler loves to run with his cousins for fun. Whether it is chasing each other, running and sliding on visquine, or running at a Special Olympics athletics meet.  Tyler loves competing and making new friends and seeing old I es at regional and state Special Olympics Louisiana events. Tyler loves the throwing events, running on the track, and the standing long jump. Tyler also loves Special Olympics Louisiana Bowling. Tyler has won Gold, Silver, and Bronze at the State level. I think he loves cheering for his  friends just as much as being an athlete. Tyler has participated in horse shoes as well.  Along with this, Tyler eating healthy. This took a while having autism and food sensitivities. When the covid pandemic hit, Tyler stayed home with me.  He was only in the eighth grade. At that time, Tyler only ate fast foods. We made a deal. I told him that he could stay home with me and not go back to the classroom if he ate what we cooked. Yes, Tyler started learning how to cook and eat every meal we made. Now, he is one of the less picky eaters in the entire family. During our virtual school time, Tyler and his mom wrote a book to inspire others that anything is possible. It is available on Amazon. 

At one of our performance stations, we had an athlete leader leading warm ups and was instructing the athletes through the warm ups. He then encouraged all of the athletes to grab one of the fruits we had available to eat as a healthy snack. One of the athletes grabbed an apple to eat. The athlete’s mother told me that this was the first time he had tried an apple on his own!