Unified Sports: Celebrating the Life of Eunice Kennedy Shriver

Special Olympics New Jersey (SONJ) invites you to our annual event celebrating the life of Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver, where you can watch a variety of unified sporting events such as basketball, volleyball or soccer - or even get on the courts with some of our athletes and play bocce.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver Day (EKS Day) is taking place this Saturday, September 22 from 9 a.m. to noon at the SONJ Sports Complex located at 3 Princess Road in Lawrenceville.

Unified Sports® joins people with and without intellectual disabilities together on the same team. Each team is made up of people of similar age and ability, which makes practices more fun and games more challenging and exciting for all. It was inspired by a simple principle: training together and playing together is a quick path to friendship and understanding. Having sport in common is just one more way that preconceptions and false ideas are swept away.

As the founder of Special Olympics, Eunice Kennedy Shriver (1921-2009) was a leader in the worldwide struggle to improve and enhance the lives of individuals with intellectual disabilities for more than three decades.

EKS Day is an annual celebration of her life and a global call for people to commit actions of inclusion, acceptance and unity for and with individuals with intellectual disabilities. EKS Day activities focus on sport, because Eunice Kennedy Shriver believed that on the playing field we forget about our differences and forge bonds that recognize our mutual humanity.

By having fun together in a variety of sports, Special Olympics athletes and their partners improve their physical fitness, sharpen their skills, challenge the competition and help to overcome prejudices about intellectual disability.

Watch a video here about EKS Day: http://youtu.be/gqzzp4t_hTA

For more information about the local EKS Day celebration, visit http://www.sonj.org/General/SpecialEvent/EKSDay or call 609-896-8000.

ABOUT SONJ: Special Olympics New Jersey provides year-round sports training and athletic competition in 24 Olympic-type sports for more than 22,000 children and adults with intellectual disabilities, completely free of charge, 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 Special Olympics athletes and the community.