The Spirit Behind the Games

  • Published
  • By Machiko Arita
  • 374th Airlift Wing public affairs
YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan --  
It was five decades ago that the Special Olympics was founded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver. In what was her own backyard at the time, Shriver founded an organization with a very clear mission, to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, giving them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in a sharing of gifts, skills and friendship with their families, other athletes and the community.

While the Special Olympics has evolved over the years to now 174 locations around the globe. One of which is held right here at Yokota Air Base, Japan. With its 40th Anniversary occurring on June 1, 2019, The Kanto Plains Special Olympics played host to athletes from around the region, as Yokota’s athletic field, gym, swimming pool and bowling alley were home to the purest of competitions, for as the Special Olympics oath goes, “Let me win, but if I can’t win, let me be brave in defeat.”

With that oath in mind, the Special Olympics is a global organization that changes lives by promoting understanding, acceptance and inclusion among people with and without intellectual disabilities.

In 1980, The Non-Commissioned Officers Association established the Kanto Plains Special Olympics right here at Yokota. Forty years later, the KPSO continues its own tradition by inviting not only people with intellectual disabilities, but also physical disabilities to participate in the festivities.

While the athletes are the heart and soul of the KPSO mission, the 40 years of success would not be possible without the volunteers that make it all a reality.

“It really is a lot of work and so many hours of preparation go into making an event of this magnitude happen,” said Senior Master Sgt. Joseph Stratton, 374th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron lead productions superintendent and president of the 2019 KPSO Committee. “While the volunteers make this amazing day happen for all of the athletes that attend, the KPSO committee, composed of 50 members from Yokota and its Japan Air Self-Defense Force partners, worked throughout the year to make it all a possibility.

“Our first step in this year long process is securing the funds needed to host the event,” said Stratton. “The event runs us about $28,000 to organize and in order to meet that goal we had to hold eight fundraising events. We also received generous donations from local sponsors, including other private organizations in the Yokota community and various Japanese community groups and individuals. Once those funding goals were met we were able to provide a day of athletic competition, an ice-breaker event the day before the competition, and a celebration dinner after the competition, as well as, have available food, transportation, sports equipment, booth rentals and T-shirts, towels and hats all at no cost to the athletes, their families and their coaches.”

With funds secured, the committee then could proceed to the logistical aspect of putting together the 40th anniversary of the KPSO.

“The actual coordination for the event began seven months prior to the athletes even stepping foot on the field,” said Stratton. “Preparation is required over an endless list of tasks: from reserving facility usage and event equipment, coordination with 374th Logistics Readiness Squadron for bus drivers shuttling athletes from athletic field to swimming pool and bowling alley, coordination with the 374th Security Forces Squadron to have security at the gate and road block, recruiting volunteers for the day of the events, coordination with 14 local schools and the Department of Defense Education Activity throughout the Kanto Plains, coordinate and work together with JASDF for placing security guard and lifeguard volunteers, designing T-shirts which were handed out to volunteers and athletes, and advertising the event.”

Another aspect of the work put into event is the task of gathering approximately 1,100 volunteers from the United States Air Force, Marine Corps, Army and Navy, as well as all three branches of Japan Self-Defense Forces to ensure the164 participating athletes would have the experience of a lifetime.

“Everything about this event is for the athletes and from start to finish this was a total force effort,” said Stratton. “We received a lot of help from our Japanese Self-Defense Force friends as they made up 620 of our 1100 event staff. This experience gave me such an appreciation of how much work it takes for all of this to come together. The enormous amount of time and effort that is put in by those volunteers, JSDF and especially our Japanese employees that maintain the continuity from year to year, really shows.”

While every volunteer has their own reason to donate their time, for Stratton, the reason hits pretty close to home.

“I volunteered more than a 100 hours of time off-duty time to make sure this event went smoothly,” said Stratton. “I donated my time because I believe everyone should do a little bit to make their communities a better place. For me, I also have two cousins that were born with spina bifida and just as I have never viewed them as different, I wanted everyone to view the athletes as no different from us. My cousins have overcome so much and these athletes are doing just that as well. This was a day for the community to get to see just how amazing these people are. Everyone that competed here today is a winner and based on the cheers I heard today, I know everyone feels that way.

“To all the athletes that competed, thank you for showing us what true resiliency looks like. On behalf of everyone at KPSO, we cannot wait to see you at next year’s games.”

If you are interested in becoming a member of the 2020 KPSO planning committee, or just donating your time to the cause on a short term basis, please send an e-mail to KPSO.Volunteer@gmail.com or message them on the Facebook “Kanto Plains Special Olympics”.