ISU Faculty, Staff and Students Volunteer for 2009 Special Olympic World Winter Games

Boise - More than 100 Idaho State University faculty, staff and students in Boise and Pocatello were part of the massive volunteer effort ensuring the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Idaho were a success.

Before the Games concluded Feb. 13, ISU health professionals and graduate students had conducted free dental exams, hearing screenings and health assessments on hundreds of athletes through the Special Olympics Healthy Athletes program, created in 1996 to focus attention on health issues facing Special Olympics athletes.

ISU-Boise assistant professor and audiologist, Mel Miller, Ph.D., who was in charge of the Healthy Hearing program for the Games, has been involved with Special Olympics for four years.

“It is a privilege to work with the athletes,” he says, “They teach you so much about courage, joy for life and not letting others define your limitations. They just lift you up.”

An estimated 2,500 athletes from 100 countries participated in the Games.