Special Olympics Club: Cheering and making friends

For one night each month, the Cube fills with people who might not otherwise have much reason to cross paths: Carroll students, Helena-area Special Olympics athletes, and Unified Partners who play sports alongside them. 

Together, they carve pumpkins, build gingerbread houses, make Valentines, and, most importantly, build friendships. Carroll’s Special Olympics Club gives students an opportunity to work with people with intellectual disabilities – but club president and senior psychology major Moira McGuire, from Colorado Springs, said the experience is about more than service. It is about creating a space where everyone can participate, lead, and belong. 

McGuire called the club an opportunity for students to gain empathy by working with and learning more about people they may not normally interact with in their daily lives. 

“It allows students to look outside of just themselves,” she said. “College is a time where you can kind of expand yourself, or you can get kind of closed in … so I think a club like this is really good because you have to give of yourself.” 

The capabilities of people with intellectual disabilities are often very downplayed, said McGuire, as many people think of them as inherently incapable of independence or leadership. But she sees at every practice and meeting that that isn’t true. 

“Really, when I’m hanging out with all my Special Olympics athletes, I’m not really thinking about what they can’t do,” McGuire said. “I’m just recognizing all the awesome things that they can do.” 

The club brings together three groups: Special Olympics athletes from the Helena area, Carroll students who participate in its monthly activities, and Unified Partners, who are certified through Special Olympics Montana to compete alongside the athletes. 

The club’s original members were partnered with the Helena Halos, an adult Special Olympics team in Helena. Wanting to more concretely bring their experiences to the Carroll community, they founded the Special Olympics Club.

“They realized, ‘Hey, we should have more of an inclusive presence here on campus,’” said McGuire. “‘We should get a lot of these athletes seen by a lot of these students, so that we can build better friendships and bonds.’” 

While many club members are Unified Partners – nine this year, alongside seven athletes – the club is a separate association from the Helena Halos, so students can participate in the fun activities without being a unified partner and playing the sports alongside the athletes. 

“A lot of it overlaps, and we support each other,” McGuire said. She has found that often, being in the club benefits students just as much as it does athletes. 

“I went in thinking I would be lending my time in volunteering,” McGuire said. “But I think what a lot of Carroll students find and Unified Partners find is you get a lot more out of it, even if your intent isn’t to gain.” 

As well as regular club activities, Unified Partners participate in sports like basketball, bowling, track and field, and soccer, playing alongside the athletes as well as attending practices with them. 

They also participate in Unified College Championship Week, which is a virtual event where college campuses with Special Olympics clubs or communities compete virtually for one week. 

The Helena Halos came in second place last year, which was one of the club’s biggest achievements yet, alongside being named Special Olympics Montana’s 2026 Local Program of the Year. 

“[The week] is a lot of work for everyone on the board, but we try to make it a lot of fun for all the athletes, Unified Partners, and student participants,” McGuire said. 

One thing the club prioritizes is sharing leadership beyond Carroll students, as there are three athlete representatives on the board. One of McGuire’s goals as president, she said, is to hear from athletes about what they want to see in the club.

Often, McGuire and the others will also have the athletes lead exercises and practices, responsibilities that they fulfill very well. It’s an effective way to get everyone involved further out of their comfort zone, she said. 

“Just having them lead activities, step into the leadership role more, and become more faces of the club, I think is a good representation of showing how capable these athletes really are,” McGuire said. 

McGuire measures the success of this aspect of the club through the small victories, little moments at club events that show how everyone has developed since they first started meeting. 

“Like our last meeting, one of our athletes is on the quieter end, and we had her lead one of the activities,” she said. “It’s just cool to see them step into leadership roles as well.” 

This year, the club’s goals include incorporating more suggestions from athletes – like a football tailgate with the athletes or a girls’ night – and reaching more people, especially underclassmen, as many board members are graduating seniors. 

Although the club would like to have a wider audience, they are already involved in the community through different activities they put on with Carroll athletics. 

Unified College Championship Week often happens to fall around Down Syndrome Awareness Day. The timing lends itself to opportunities for the club to put on different events for Down Syndrome awareness, like Spread the Word Day or their Down Syndrome Awareness Walk, often coordinating with the sports teams and the athletic department to do so. 

“We get athletes from all the teams, and they come, and it’s also an opportunity for Carroll students … for the community to come in and experience our events,” said McGuire.

In general, she said, events like these are great for building community and inclusion across campus, rather than just within members of the club. 

“Special Olympics is one of my favorite parts of my week,” McGuire said. “It doesn’t have anything really to do with my major—it’s just something that brings me a lot of joy, so I think I just wanted to make sure that was provided for other people as well.” 

Clubs like the Special Olympics Club are important to have in educational settings, especially, McGuire said, as they provide ample opportunities for students to dismantle their own preconceptions about intellectual disabilities and help spread awareness about negative stereotypes. 

“One of the main goals is to provide a space for athletes, but I think it also allows students to feel loved,” said McGuire. “It lets them meet people they maybe wouldn’t normally hang out with and be friends with unless there is this opportunity.” 

She encouraged anyone and everyone to try out the Special Olympics Club, even if they don’t think they would be a good fit – the club is great for anyone who wants to gain more empathy and experience with different kinds of people, she emphasized. 

“I’d say everyone belongs in the club,” she said. “I came in without any experience working with Special Olympics, and then I realized that it was a space I really loved. So just give it a chance—it’s a space for everyone to feel included and to belong.”