July 14th, 2004

CAMP SHRIVER EVOKES THE GENESIS OF THE SPECIAL OLYMPICS MOVEMENT

For two weeks this July, memories will come alive as Eunice Kennedy Shriver hosts Camp Shriver at her home in Potomac, Maryland, USA.

From 12-16 July and 19-23 July 2004, more than 60 campers with intellectual disabilities will pair up with volunteers to discover the opportunities and experiences of participating in a sports camp program. Camp Shriver permits these campers to realize their potential, develop physical fitness and experience the joys and friendships that come from camp.

Camp Shriver 2004 evokes the first Camp Shriver in 1962. Shriver believed that people with intellectual disabilities were far more capable than commonly believed and deserving of the same opportunities and experiences as others. So she started a summer day camp for children and adults with intellectual disabilities at Timberlawn, her home in Rockville, Maryland, to explore their capabilities in a variety of sports and physical activities.

The primary focus of this year’s Camp Shriver will be to provide a new generation of people with disabilities an opportunity to enjoy the experiences of participating in a social and sports camp. The camp will provide sports training in swimming, soccer and basketball to boys and girls with intellectual disabilities, ranging in age from 10-18. In addition, sports clinics and learning activities, volleyball, bocce, arts, crafts and music will be part of the program. Two one-week sessions will offer three hours each day of fun and well-organized sports, games and new learning experiences.

Even before the first Camp Shriver, Eunice Kennedy Shriver already had a long-standing commitment to people with intellectual disabilities. She was instrumental in focusing the Kennedy, Jr. Foundation on improving the way society deals with its citizens with intellectual disabilities, and helping identify and disseminate ways to prevent the causes of intellectual disabilities. Shriver is Executive Vice President of the Foundation, which was established in 1946 by her father and mother, Ambassador and Mrs. Joseph P. Kennedy, to honor their eldest son who was killed in World War II.

Using Camp Shriver as an example, Shriver promoted the concept of involvement and physical activity and competition opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities. Camp Shriver became an annual event, and the Kennedy Foundation gave grants to universities, recreation departments and community centers. In 1963, the Foundation supported 11 similar camps around the United States. By 1969, the Foundation supported 32 camps across the country that served 10,000 children with intellectual disabilities. The movement grew beyond the Kennedy Foundation, and over the next five years, more than 300 camps similar to Camp Shriver were started.

"I wish that people all over America would try this experiment," said Shriver in 1962. "If wealthy people would throw open their large estates, if school buildings, closed during the summer, could be utilized as craft and athletic centers during hot weather, we could produce some exceptional results among exceptional children."

Shriver’s vision and passion provided the inspiration that led to the First International Special Olympics Summer Games. On 20 July 1968, together with the Chicago Park District, the Kennedy Foundation planned and underwrote the Games, which were held in Chicago's Soldier Field, with 1,000 athletes with intellectual disabilities from 26 U.S. states and Canada competing in athletics, floor hockey, and aquatics. In December of that year, Special Olympics was incorporated and the movement that today includes almost 1.4 million athletes around the world was born.

Focused on the ideals of inclusion, acceptance and community involvement, Camp Shriver built a firm foundation for Special Olympics. By inspiring the public to acknowledge the potential of people with intellectual disabilities, Camp Shriver planted the seed that provided people with intellectual disabilities the one thing they needed — an opportunity.

The first camps were held during U.S. President John F. Kennedy’s administration, in which Sargent Shriver (Eunice Kennedy Shriver’s husband and Chairman Emeritus of Special Olympics) served as Director of the Peace Corps. In “Sarge: The Life and Times of Sargent Shriver,” the recently published biography of Sargent Shriver, daughter Maria Shriver remembered the unique mix of the country’s leaders and camp attendees at the family’s home: “The unifying strand tying these disparate groups together, Maria says, was the idealism and hopefulness. ‘Almost everyone who visited Timberlawn in the 1960s,’ she recalled, ‘believed they were helping to change the world.’"

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