Lydia was being recognized as the winner of the "If I were Mayor..." contest! It was an art and essay contest in our city. The essay and art was to include ideas for how to make improvements in our city.
Here is Lydia's essay in her own words:
I Think That We Should Have Sports Opportunities for People with Disabilities in [our city]
If I were mayor, I would have opportunities for people with disabilities to do sports. I think that just because people are different, they are people too. I think that we should have a sports program for people with special needs and also for normal people to play against or with them. We will compete against other teams in “Area” and “State”. Area is where you are divided into leagues for “State”. Also, if you go and compete in Area you automatically go to state. This program exists already, but not in [our city]. It is called the Special Olympics. You can look it up on the internet if you want to know more about it. Let me tell you some background of how I got this idea.
My older brother has a learning disability, and we go to this program in [another city] for sports with other people with disabilities. The team’s name is the Lumberjacks. You can look up that too. Even if you put a program like this in [our city] we will probably still stay with that program, but other people may not want to go that far to do sports.
Some sports you could offer are:
In Winter: Snowboarding, Skiing, Curling, Swimming, and Basketball.
In Spring/Summer: Softball, Track and field, and Soccer.
And in Fall: Golf, Bowling, Cross Country, Flag Football, and Volleyball.
You could have this program at a school, or have it in different places depending on the sport. For example, in our program we have some sports at a school, but others, like golf, are at different spaces depending on the sport. Family or friends can sign up to be unified partners and play along- side them and help them. Also, retired people can come help out too. Of course, no one will be paid, but just seeing the smiles on their faces will be worth it. People would pay for jerseys and/or fundraisers. There would be someone in charge, most likely a parent or guardian of an athlete. Everyone will feel welcome and like they belong, and everyone will feel safe. This program could be an escape from the bullying and pain that some people have in the real world.
I made this sculpture to represent a retired woman and a boy born with autism and the woman is helping him bowl. He may not do it the same way as most people would, but you can see that he is having fun and THAT is the point of this program. Not, to teach them the right way to play, but to have fun. THAT is my point. Thank you.
The city put all the entries on display at our nature center and they had a ribbon cutting ceremony. Lydia, along with the 2nd and 3rd place winners, got to present their essays, and then Lydia got to cut the ribbon to open the "gallery" with huge scissors!
After the ceremony, she was invited to the city council meeting, where she got to be "Mayor for a Day". She called the meeting to order and adjourned the meeting with her prize - her very own gavel! She learned a lot about Robert's Rules of Order, and when she got home, she immediately made a motion to extend bedtime - which was defeated by a vote of 2 nays to 3 yays (because our house is not a democracy!)
I'm so proud of Lydia, for not only her quality work, but for coming up with an idea that was both personally meaningful and selfless. She did it completely on her own, and to be honest, I didn't even see her finished project until the gallery opening. She didn't even tell me she won. Her friend's mom congratulated her in front of me, and I acted like I knew what she was talking about!
I'm so proud of Lydia, for not only her quality work, but for coming up with an idea that was both personally meaningful and selfless. She did it completely on her own, and to be honest, I didn't even see her finished project until the gallery opening. She didn't even tell me she won. Her friend's mom congratulated her in front of me, and I acted like I knew what she was talking about!
