home jobs contact us
Our Clients:
Browse by Sport
Find us on ASAP sports on Facebook ASAP sports on Twitter
ASAP Sports RSS Subscribe to RSS
Click to go to
Asaptext.com		 ASAPtext.com
ASAP Sports e-Brochure View our
e-Brochure

SHOPRITE LPGA CLASSIC


June 2, 2012


Nadia Comaneci

Bart Conner

David Egan

In-Kyung Kim

Una McGarry

Tim Shriver

Peter Wheeler


GALLOWAY, NEW JERSEY

THE MODERATOR:  All right, everyone.  Thank you for joining us today here for this very special announcement.  I'd like to welcome our three special guests that we have here today.  First of all, we have three‑time LPGA Tour winner, I. K. Kim.  Next to my right here is Special Olympics chief of strategic properties, Peter Wheeler.  And we'd also like to welcome David Egan, one of our Special Olympics athletes from West Virginia and you're a global messenger for the Special Olympics.  Thank you very much.  I'm going to pass the mic over to Peter, and can you just let everyone in on why we are here today for this very special announcement?
PETER WHEELER:  Sure.  Good afternoon.  It's such an honor to be here today representing Special Olympics, the movement, a worldwide movement of Special Olympics.  We're here in New Jersey we have Special Olympics New Jersey, we have a number of athletes which we'll introduce in a few moments, but Special Olympics of New Jersey is one of our great programs, not only in the United States, but worldwide.  So it's an honor to be here in New Jersey and also to be here at this wonderful country club, which will be the host of our Special Olympics North America Golf Invitational next year when the athletes from throughout North America will come here and play the same course that I. K. is playing.
We also want to thank the LPGA who have been such wonderful friends to our movement, and we hope that this relationship continues to grow, and we want to thank Kelly and Sean and everyone at the LPGA Tour for really welcoming not only the movement, but most importantly welcoming our athletes.
So I wanted to give you just a real quick ‑‑ a little background about Special Olympics.  We're 44 years old as an organization.  Or young.  We'll call it young.  And we have over the last ten years, we've gone from one million athletes to four million athletes.  We are now in 170 nations.  So that's the good news.
We also, out of that four million athletes, I. K., we have 30,000 golfers.  That's rounded off, but we have 30,000 golfers of which 10,000 are women and 20,000 are men.  So we hope that with your involvement we're going to have ‑‑ that gender equality is going to ‑‑ within the next year we'll have 20,000 women and 20,000 men.  But that's all the good news.
The not‑so‑good news is that there are 200 million people with intellectual disabilities around the world.  Many of those athletes or people with intellectual disabilities who are not athletes live in isolation.  They live in loneliness.  They live with daily discrimination and neglect.  And Special Olympics, what we look to do is reverse that.  And we reverse that in a simple way, by bringing a soccer ball out, by hitting a golf ball, which for many of us isn't very simple, but to really using sports to really ‑‑ and use the universality of sports to bring people together, bring people from the community together.
And what happens with that simple idea of using sports to change people and change our athletes and have them stand up on a podium for the first time, have the parents come out and celebrate their achievements, what happens along the way is we all change, the world changes, the community changes.
So what I'd like to do is cue up a quick video.  It's only a two‑minute video about Special Olympics and what sports teaches us.
THE VIDEO:  Sport teaches us when we train, it teaches us to dream.  When we struggle, it teaches us determination.  When we win, it teaches us joy.  And if we lose, sport teaches us the will to try again.  Sport teaches us who we really are.
Who can benefit the most from this lesson?  Those of us who are told most frequently that we can't, those of us who are labeled most often by others, those of us who are judged most unfairly and told that we are this or that.  Sport teaches people who they really are, and we teach people sport.  We're Special Olympics.  Founded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver in 1968, we provide millions of athletes with intellectual disabilities in more than 170 countries the opportunity to experience all the empowering benefits of sport with over 44,000 competitions a year and World Games every two years, and though it all starts with sports, Special Olympics is much more.  We're a network of families who share information, understanding and support.  We're Special Olympics Healthy Athletes, the largest provider of free health services for people with intellectual disabilities.  We're volunteers and builders of communities reaching and helping people who would otherwise be forgotten in some of the most neglected areas of the world.  We're bridge builders helping to forge relationships and acceptance between our athletes and young people without intellectual disabilities teaching them to become leaders in their own ranks.  We're champions and advocates for learning, research and policy changes across the globe.  Most importantly, we're also a catalyst for social change, because once you see what our athletes are capable of, you start to lose your preconceptions.  So sport teaches people who they really are, and we teach people sports, but in the end it's really they who teach us all.  
PETER WHEELER:  So last night I came down from Vermont, and yesterday we had ‑‑ all of our programs throughout the United States do summer games, and I was at the summer games in Burlington, Vermont.  And when we say you meet the best people in Special Olympics, you truly do.  So I was honored last night to be with 1200 of the best people in Vermont.  And today we have some other great people with us from New Jersey.
And if I could just ask you to stand, we have Matt Duman, Joanne Dinicossea, Sam Pignatelli, Tracey Mussara, John MaCormac.  Did I miss anyone?  Oh, Matt do you March.  Okay.  So thank you all for coming.  (Applause).  We also have Carmen Bannon who is the director of outreach for this area, but Carmen was a volunteer.  He started off as a volunteer.  He's been involved for 30 years with Special Olympics.
So again, I. K., when you come into our family, you meet the best people.  And today we've talked about what's been happening with Special Olympics, but we're looking to the future.  And we're looking and so excitedly to welcome you as I. K. Kim, an extraordinary athlete, an extraordinary humanitarian to our family, to Special Olympics as our newest sports ambassador.
You know, since I. K. came on the tour, many of you all know what she's done.  Amazing, unprecedented, she has in the five years that she's been on the tour, she's been one of the Top 10 women golfers in the world.  In the world.  How amazing is that?  But she's also taken not only her passion for golf, but she's also shown a passion for people, for community.  And she's the first golfer ever who took her winnings from one tournament that she won, the Lorena Ochoa tournament in Mexico in 2010 and decided this check I'm going to do something really meaningful, and she gave the check to a charity, Lorena Ochoa's school, and then she's also going to give the check to another charity today, hopefully.  (Laughs).
But the amazing thing is we know what passion she brings to the golf course and to the game of golf, and we see that every time she steps up to the tee.  But we're also learning every day the passion you bring to life, the passion you bring to making a difference, and we're so excited that I. K. as the sports ambassador is going to teach our athletes to be better athletes.  She's going to help raise awareness for our movement that continues to need awareness, especially outside the U. S.
We're in 170 countries, as I mentioned.  The U. S. everyone knows about Special Olympics, but not so much in places like Korea, which will host our next Special Olympics World Winter Games in 2013.  In eight months I. K.'s homeland, Korea, will bring 2300 athletes from around the world.  And you want to meet the best people, again, go to the World Games in Korea and you'll meet not only 2300 athletes and the coaches representing 112 countries, but you'll meet wonderful citizens from Korea, over 10,000 volunteers that are coming to really welcome our athletes to the wonderful country of Korea or the Republic of South Korea.
So I. K., we know that you are every day making a meaningful difference, and as an ambassador, I think the one message that we're excited you'll tell to people around the world, that everyone counts, everyone matters, everyone has value and everyone belongs.
So we welcome you to Special Olympics, and thank you so, so much for stepping forward and taking on this very special and very important role.  (Applause).
Now I have the great honor of introducing a global messenger who has spoken before Congress, has represented Special Olympics around the world at World Games.  He's a great swimmer.  But most important, he's not only a great athlete, but he's a great advocate for all athletes and a great leader himself in Special Olympics.  So let me introduce David Egan from Special Olympics Virginia.  (Applause).
DAVID EGAN:  Thank you, Peter.  Good afternoon, everyone.  How is everyone doing today?  I hope that you are having a great time on the green.  Are you in the scheme of things keeping your eyes on the prize?  Are you ready to meet a great golfer, I. K. Kim?  My name is David Egan, and I'm a Special Olympics athlete and global messenger.  I'm so happy and honored to be here at this golf event to announce I. K. Kim as our Special Olympics sports ambassador.
She is a successful golf competitor who has proven herself since a young age, qualified for the tour on her first attempt and was named Rookie of the Year for 2007.  She's a great athlete, and we are so happy that I. K. Kim decided to join the Special Olympics family and become a spokesperson for our cause.
Thank you, I. K. Kim, for your commitment to the movement.  This means a lot.  This means a great deal to me and all of the athletes who I represent.  We're relying on you to spread our message all over the world.  We are proud to have you as our ambassador and our fan.  Thank you for believing in us and taking on this new role of Special Olympics sports ambassador.
Let me tell you about my involvement with Special Olympics and what it means to me.  I have been in Special Olympics for the past 26 years, since the age of 8, almost as the same age as I. K. Kim started in golfing.
I competed in speed skating, soccer, basketball, softball and swimming.  I do also like to putt‑putt on miniature golf and have made quite a few holes‑in‑one.  However, I'm not a golfer, but golf is a Special Olympics sport.
Special Olympics provides year‑round athletic competition for individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities.  But Special Olympics is much more than competitions and medals.  I gained confidence when I started competing with Special Olympics.  I was able to win.  I was able to show my abilities.  My family was involved, and they could see me succeed, and they are very proud of me.
The mission of Special Olympics is rooted in the values of hope, love and opportunity, to create an opportunity for people with intellectual disabilities where we can compete, showcase our abilities, experience success and demonstrate our best.  To be the best is one thing, but to give it one's best is what matters at the end.
I speak about Special Olympics and carry this message wherever I go.  But without volunteers, sponsors and ambassadors like you, Special Olympics would not be the organization it is today.  You are our spokesperson, joining many others who are leading the change we all wish to see in the world.  It's about community revolution evolution.  As Tim Shriver, Special Olympics chairman, coined the term, Special Olympics is a movement that promotes respect, unit and potential through sport.
Like in our oath, and it goes like this, "let me win, and if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt."  Will you please repeat this with me?  Let me win.
THE AUDIENCE:  Let me win.
DAVID EGAN:  And if I cannot win.
THE AUDIENCE:  And if I cannot win.
DAVID EGAN:  I may be brave in the attempt.
THE AUDIENCE:  I may be brave in the attempt.
DAVID EGAN:  When I was 12, I dreamed about winning the competitions.  I still like to win many races, but now I have a dream of changing the minds and hearts of many.  I dream of a world where people with disabilities do not have to hide.  Special Olympics has changed my life, and it can change yours.
Thanks, I. K. Kim, for joining the long line of spokespersons around the world.  I can assure you that this is a new adventure and you will not regret it.  Thank you for being our new ambassador taking our message to the golf community and to the whole world.  Please do not ever forget that Special Olympics, while a serious cause, is after all a fun experience.  Thank you.  Thank you all.  (Applause).
PETER WHEELER:  I. K., we have a few messages that we'd like to show you from some other ambassadors that are welcoming you.  I think you'll recognize them all.
(BY VIDEO:)
UNA McGARRY:  I would like to welcome and congratulate you on joining the Special Olympics family.  It is a global and national organization and I am really proud to be a part of this great team.  I've been able to witness firsthand the passion of Special Olympics athletes every time I meet them.  It has truly been a (indiscernible).  As a global ambassador for the 2013 Special Olympics in 2013, I hope you will make the games next year.
BART CONNER:  Hi, I. K., it's Bart Conner.
NADIA COMANECI:  And Nadia Comaneci.
BART CONNER:  And we're here to tell you how excited and grateful we are to hear that you're the newest Special Olympics sport ambassador.  Nadia and I have been involved with the Special Olympics movement now for many years, and we can tell you from the bottom of our hearts that there's nothing more rewarding and heartwarming than the Special Olympics movement.
NADIA COMANECI:  On behalf of the board of directors of Special Olympics, we want to welcome you to our organization and our cause, and on behalf of more than four million Special Olympics athletes with intellectual disabilities, we want to say thank you for giving your time and energy and limitless (indiscernible) to help them achieve a better life.
BART CONNER:  I. K., like you, we understand the dedication and sacrifice it takes to be a world‑class athlete.  That's why we're so humbly grateful for your decision to become a Special Olympics sports ambassador.  We're sure your personal time is very limited and very valuable.  It's a great gift you've offered our organization and we are honored you have chosen to join our team.
NADIA COMANECI:  Thanks, I. K.  We will be cheering for you on the LPGA Tour and look forward to seeing you in Korea at the 2013 games.
TIM SHRIVER:  Hello, I'm Tim Shriver, and it's a great pleasure for me to be a part of a movement that includes over four million athletes around the world, athletes who aspire to be and lively claim the title of the best in sports.  They're athletes that compete in over 20 winter and summer sports.  They compete in countries all around the world, in villages and towns, in big stadiums and on small fields.  They are the athletes of Special Olympics.
We believe they are the greatest heroes of sport.  They compete for the love of competition, to use their bodies to express their spirit, to try with everything they've got to leave it all on the field and to never want to defeat another as much as they want to do their best, to strive for excellence as a way of showing the world that they too count.
It is on their behalf that it is a great honor for me to welcome I. K. Kim as a sports ambassador for our movement, and it is not difficult to say how important and powerful this welcome is because, I. K., you are like the athletes of Special Olympics, an example of the best in sports, someone who strives, works tirelessly, who putts and drives and chips in a way that mesmerizes people, but who also has a heart just as big as her skill, who also has a spirit just as dedicated to excellence as your swing is.
So for us, a woman who comes with the great gift of sport, but also the great gift of generosity as you have shown so many times, is a welcome ambassador for our movement.  In some ways, I.K., it is for us to say thank you for all you've already been just as much as we are thanking you now for joining us as an ambassador for what you will and what we hope together we will create.  Next year we'll see special Olympics World Winter Games in Korea, two years later Special Olympics World Games in Los Angeles, California, but every day hundreds of Special Olympics competitions that bring to life the best in sports.
We're thrilled now that I. K. Kim is on that team, the best in sports welcomes the best in sports.  Thanks, I. K.  Welcome to the Special Olympics family.
I.K. KIM:  I don't know how I can follow this great speech and everything.  Thank you so much all for joining here today.  Thank you, Peter and Kelly, LPGA and David for a great introduction.  I'm very happy to be here today.  I've been looking forward to it and looking forward to meeting all of you here.  I hope this experience will stay in my memory for a lifetime.  So thank you so much for giving me the opportunity.
I'm very proud to be the sports ambassador for the Special Olympics.  And I'm very overwhelmed, but you can understand after watching the videos and meeting people just for a couple ‑‑ ten minutes, that this organization really matters.  This is a great organization.  They have four million ‑‑ more than four million athletes around the world and 170 different countries, and all the volunteers.
And I'm just very pleased to be a part of the organization, and I'm looking forward to work with the athletes by the lessons and clinics, and mostly, I think, awareness because a year ago I didn't know about the Special Olympics, and I think a lot of people just didn't have education and a lot of people doesn't know about this organization.
I think for me golf is a very individual game, and a lot of times I just think about how I'm going to improve myself, and I think it's just sharing with others, and if I can help other people, I think that would be great.
And yeah, hopefully my work will help other younger people to educate and inspire to make a difference in the community through Special Olympics, and just want to say thank you again for giving me this great opportunity.  Thank you.
PETER WHEELER:  Thank you, I. K.  So I. K., this is a plaque that says, "Special Olympics Sports Ambassador I. K. Kim is hereby welcomed to the Special Olympics movement as a sports ambassador to promote acceptance, inclusion and respect for people with intellectual disabilities throughout the sport of golf.  Celebrating the vision of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, you stand as a symbol of dedication, support, volunteerism and acceptance for the athletes of Special Olympics in the hearts and the minds of communities around the world."  (Applause).
So you know, I. K., we can't thank you enough for your generosity.  All of these funds will go to really support a lot of our outreach efforts here in the United States focused on golf and also our work with youth.  So we'll be reporting back to I. K. on how this money has really supported some of the things that David talked about and how we really will stretch this and make it really meaningful and make you proud of how it is spent.
It also is a wonderful example for all of our ambassadors throughout the world, Una, Bart Conner, Nadia, about here is someone like I. K. that's not only supporting us in helping our athletes become better athletes when you see her out doing the clinic today, but she's also contributing.  So generous to also make sure that we have the means to do more, and so we can't thank you enough for your generosity and your time and talent and your spirit as Tim Shriver said.  Thank you.  (Applause).
THE MODERATOR:  Does anybody have any questions for I. K.?  I guess I just would like to ask you, if you could just talk a little bit about ‑‑ we know how much it meant to you when you won the Lorena Ochoa Invitational back in 2010 to donate that entire first prize check to two different organizations.  Can you tell us about what made you decide after this time, I know you were thinking really hard and wanting to do something that was very special to you, what made you choose Special Olympics to be involved in and to make this donation?
I.K. KIM:  Since after the tournament I just wanted to do something in the U.S., so I was looking for the organization and charities through LPGA.  Shawn's right here, but he's been helping me with getting to know and learn about the Special Olympics, and I didn't know about the Special Olympics, like I said, but since I learned and heard about it, I really wanted to get involved and to learn and really be part of the organization.
So yeah, I'm very excited to do something, you know, really meaningful and also that I can continue to help not just one‑time fundraising, but kind of ‑‑ you know, I just wanted to get myself out there to really do something meaningful.  That's why I chose Special Olympics.
THE MODERATOR:  Any more questions for I. K.?  Well, thank you very much for sharing this special announcement with all of us today.  And for anyone who's interested I. K. is now going to go outside and take part in a junior golf show with some others and spread the message of Special Olympics and then she'll be working with some of the athletes out there as well.  So we'd love to have you join us out there.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
About ASAP Sports • FastScripts Archive • Recent Interviews • Captioning • Upcoming Events • Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297