WARSAW – The last two Saturdays have seen a couple of very special events play out at WCHS.

The First Annual 5K/1Mile Run, Walk, or Roll event took place on May 24.

The event was a fundraiser for the Indiana Special Olympics and the newly formed WCHS Unified Track Team as part of the Champions Together Initiative.  Planners of this event included special education teachers Barb Martz and Rachel Hardy; Brenda Linky, Department Coordinator; Becky Burger, department secretary and Celia Heckert, a Peer Tutor in the special education department.

Two hundred people came out to run, jog, or walk the 5K cross county course.  An additional fifty people ran, jogged, walked, or rolled one mile on the high school track.  Not only did the event raise money for two worthy causes, but also raised awareness about the abilities of all people.  The event was made possible with the support of many volunteers and financial sponsors.

The WCHS Unified Track team has participated in track meets with Bremen and East Noble.  Warsaw Community High School was the host site for the Inaugural Northern Unified Track sectional held Saturday, May 31.  After the meet, the team presented a check for $1,500 to Michael Furnish, Indiana Special Olympics President and CEO and Jeff Mohler, Vice President of Programs.  Also in attendance were the IHSAA Commissioner Bobby Cox, Assistant Commissioner Robert Faulkens, and Lee Lonzo, Educational Consultant with the IHSAA.

The WCHS Unified Track Team captured a third-place finish in the Sectional Meet this past Saturday. That outstanding finish by the team   has qualified them to make the trip to the first ever Unified State Track meet to be held Saturday, June 7 on the Indiana University Campus in Bloomington.  The meet will be held just prior to the IHSAA Boys Track State Meet.

According to the ISHAA website, “Unified Sports was first developed by Special Olympics as a means of providing a quality experience of sports training and competition in an inclusive environment that allows friendships to form.  It is the vision of this joint IHSAA/Special Olympics Indiana sports project to allow high school students with and without intellectual disabilities to collectively represent their high school in an IHSAA sanctioned activity by participating together on a Unified Sports team.”