Freeport High School held its first Fun Day Athletic Challenge that encouraged all students to freely participate in an afternoon of gymnasium games but was designed to particularly involve and engage those students with special needs. A group of Freeport student volunteers called "Peer Buddies" were on hand to coach and play with the participants and ensure they had a good time.
Smiles were everywhere as students were divided into teams and rotated into supervised activities, such as soccer and net games. Special education teacher Madeline Silverman and physical education teacher Toby Elmore coordinated the afterschool program. "This has been in the planning stage for a long time and I am happy that our district has been so supportive," said Silverman. "Hopefully, this is just the starting point for many more great events to come." One of the future ideas is to have other high schools from the area also participate.
Parents and friends turned out to populate the bleachers and cheer on the special student-athletes as they proudly wore their Freeport jerseys and shared good times with classmates.
