Realtors plunge again for Special Olympics
March 3-9, 2025
By the Daily Record Staff
Let me win, but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt. - Special Olympics athlete oath
The 2025 Law Enforcement Torch Run Polar Plunge for Special Olympics Arkansas took place at the Racquet Club on February 22. The sun was shining bright but it wasn’t much of a factor when Little Rock Realtor Association CEO Stacy Hamilton and LRRA Board Member John Selva jumped into the frigid water at the Racquet Club to support local Special Olympic athletes. The annual fundraiser was a huge success with nearly $15,000 raised locally and over $130,000 statewide.
“I was so happy that my friend Stacy Johnson Hamilton with the Little Rock Realtors Association joined me to jump with Special Olympics athlete Becky this year! “ Selva posted on his Facebook page. “Thanks to all of the sponsors and supporters and to Alice 107.7 - Little Rock, AR and DJ Pool Boy for being there to emcee! Thanks to Becky and our other supporters, Engel & Völkers Little Rock , who won the prize for most money raised by a team! I can’t wait to see which of my friends and fellow Realtors will BE BRAVE LIKE BECKY and jump with me next year! Who knows, you may get lucky and get a 75 degree day instead of 25!” Every year, thousands of people jump into freezing cold water to support Special Olympics Arkansas. By plunging, they help bring opportunity and inclusion to over 19,500 Special Olympics athletes and young athletes across the state. There are 18 plunges around the state that make up the Polar Plunge season.
When people speak of the origin of Special Olympics, they look back to the early sixties, when Eunice Kennedy founded “Camp Shriver,” at her home in Potomac, Maryland, in her own backyard. People speak of her vision: how through sports, the lives of people with intellectual disabilities would be transformed and public perceptions would be changed forever.
In 1960, a woman from Bethesda, Md. called up Eunice and told her that she was having trouble finding a summer camp for her child with intellectual disability. The child wouldn’t be accepted into a mainstream camp, and, at that time, the public education system couldn’t figure out what to do with special-needs children never mind supply them with summer activities. Then another woman told her almost the same thing.
“Enough,” said Eunice.
In Eunice’s world, “enough” has always meant “do something about it.”
Thus was born Camp Shriver, which she started at her Maryland farm, Timberlawn. Eunice asked special schools and clinics in her area to provide names of special-needs children who might be interested. Then she recruited high school and college students to act as counselors. It was almost a one-on-one situation—34 children, 26 counselors.
To almost everyone’s surprise—the exception being Eunice—it was an instant success. The children swam, kicked soccer balls, shot baskets and rode horses under the summer sun. Perhaps most importantly, the young counselors, wary at first, began to see, as Eunice already had, that these children were not “difficult,” “unteachable,” “belligerent” and all those other stereotypes that had been ascribed to them. They merely wanted to have fun ... just like every other kid.
As the camp continued and flourished, people from the community came out to watch, and they were followed by representatives of the parks department and public-school system. “That’s when it really began to catch on,” Eunice said.
One of the most important aspects of Camp Shriver was Eunice’s insistence there be an interaction between children with special needs and typical children. One of the latter was Tim, her son, just three years old when the camp began. Tim was paired with a young boy with intellectual disabilities named Wendell. They swam together, ate together, ran together and sometimes got in trouble together.
“The thing about Camp Shriver was that it was fun,” says Tim. “That’s what my parents are good at it—making important things fun.”
As the number of campers grew over the years, reaching about 100, so did the number of counselors. Children with special needs grow and thrive with attention, and at Camp Shriver there were never kids moping around alone. They were engaged. “My mother always believed that one-on-one relationships could change people’s lives,” says Maria Shriver.
Camp Shriver continued for four years, up to the point when something grander and more far-reaching replaced it. But it was an important first step.
Source: specialolympics.org
Photo captions:
1. Stacy Hamilton and John Selva of the Little Rock Realtors Association jump into the cold water at the Racquet Club pool on February 22 for the 2025 Law Enforcement Torch Run Polar Plunge for Special Olympics Arkansas.
2. LRRA Board Member John Selva and Special Olympics athlete Becky at the Polar Plunge on February 22 at the Racquet Club.
Photo Credits:
Photo 1: by Elle Gaxiola
Photo 2: Facebook/John Selva
