CARRABASSETT VALLEY – The opening ceremonies of the annual Maine winter Special Olympics held Monday at Sugarloaf USA will be a colorful one when the athletes and their coaches will be wearing handmade scarves donated by knitters and crocheters across the state.
When Special Olympics Maine organizer Lisa Bird thought a national campaign called Scarves for Special Olympics might be a good idea here, she signed up a few months ago. The program asks the community to donate handmade scarves so that each Special Olympics athlete can wear one at the winter games.
“Feeling pretty confident we might get 100 if we were lucky,” Bird said. Press releases went out about the scarf plea, but nothing happened until a month ago when a few new stories on the project ran and scarves began to trickle into Bird’s office.
“My phone began ringing with calls from knitters asking about lengths and colors and things called pearls and stitches and rows,” she said. Two weeks ago a total of 50 scarves had arrived and “we began brainstorming on how we would choose the 50 athletes who would get them,” Bird said. Then the flood of scarves began.
The state’s knitters united to create more than 1,000 handmade scarves to match each team’s colors. Many of the scarves were made by knitting clubs, while others were made by school teachers and their students in class; nursing home residents pitched in and some Special Olympians made their own scarves. Scarves were made in memory of a loved one, another 36 scarves came from a single family fun project and occasional vacationers to the state mailed in their contributions too.
“My office is overflowing with scarves,” Bird said. “This scarf project went from being a cute idea to something incredibly motivating, inspiring and heart warming,” she added.
On Monday, all 500 athletes and 300 coaches will be sporting the new handmade scarves at the Parade of Champions followed by the opening ceremonies for the state’s Special Olympics games held at noon in front of the Base Lodge at Sugarloaf USA.
Hundreds of athletes, coaches and supporters from across the state will start arriving on Sunday. As part of the annual event, organizers estimate that more than 800 people from 80 Maine communities will be served what is considered one of state’s largest community potluck supper 6 to 7 p.m. at the Base Lodge on Sunday night. Residents of Carrabassett Valley and the surrounding communities play host by cooking up and serving more than 200 casseroles, with salads, desserts and more for the hungry hundreds attending.
On Monday and Tuesday, athletes will be competing in alpine and nordic skiing, speed skating, snowshoeing and dual ski at Sugarloaf and The Outdoor Center. Closing ceremonies will be held Tuesday at noon. View a schedule of the games here.
Just a couple of comments – not all the knitters/crocheters were from Maine! I sent 14 scarves from Texas and my daughter sent 7 from North Carolina. Also, nationwide all team colors are the same. Teams in every participating state will sport the same colors this year with next year’s colors to be announced later this spring.