Saeed Husain
News Editor
This past weekend saw one of the year’s most anticipated basketball games in Timken Gymnasium — the Big Blue Bash, held between the Special Olympians from the Nick Amster Foundation and a group of first-responders from the city of Wooster. The duel was held in front of an excited crowd on Sunday afternoon, Feb. 26.
As the teams lined up, there were cheers for both sides in what promised to be a close contest. However, at the end of the game it was clear that the Special Olympians had stolen the show. While the first-responders played with high spirits, the folks from the Nick Amster Foundation completely erased any notion of competition.
“We started this event to bring community awareness to our company and our Special Olympians. We also use it to raise money to support our non-profit activities and sports,” says Lisa Brown, the Foundation’s activities coordinator.
Sports often have the innate ability of bringing together people from various backgrounds to partake in a shared activity. This scribe has noted while working the College’s basketball games and spectating Fighting Scots football games that most of the support for teams comes from the larger Wooster community. The Big Blue Bash serves a similar purpose and invigorates those who have a further zeal for volunteerism as well.
This seems to be the prerogative with which the Nick Amster Foundation holds the Big Blue Bash every year: to not only raise further awareness for their absolutely incredible Special Olympians, but also to create a greater bond between the College and the larger Wooster community. This is echoed by Brown.
“Our [College of Wooster] students benefit from getting to know the Nick Amster folks, as those students who have been participating in Tuesday evening Nick Amster game nights in The Alley can attest. Overall, this is a very positive form of interaction between the College and the larger Wooster community, and I would love to see it grow,” she said.
The Tuesday evening game nights which Brown mentions are coordinated on the College’s behalf by Dr. Thomas Tierney, a professor in the sociology/anthropology department. Tierney maintains a mailing list through which he contacts students who may be interested in spending their time with the folks from the Foundation playing games in The Alley.
Brown would ultimately like to see the College be more involved with the Special Olympians from the Foundation, especially in other sporting events which the Special Olympians also take part in.
“They [the Special Olympians] compete in numerous sports besides basketball, such as golf, bowling and softball, and in the past have competed in weightlifting. The Special Olympians love interacting with our students, and the families of these athletes would also get to know our students if we were to host other Special Olympic events on campus,” she said.
For the future, the Foundation hopes to take the Big Blue Bash on an even larger scale, with the intention of expanding community awareness. Brown also hopes to continue the Foundation’s partnership with the College, the first responders who played from the opposing side and the city of Wooster’s Commissioner’s office.
“In the future we hope to continue our partnership with the College, the first responders and the Commissioner’s office, but hopefully gain other partners who would like to get involved with the event. A larger crowd and more spectator participation would be great too,” Brown said.
For more information on volunteering with the Nick Amster Foundation on campus, contact Dr. Thomas Tierney at TTierney@wooster.edu.
(Photo courtesy Dr. Tierney)