Volunteers are the backbone of Special Olympics Pennsylvania. Without our volunteers, we’d never be able to provide competition, leadership, health and so many other opportunities to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities throughout Pennsylvania.
Congratulations to Rebecca Roof, from Bradford/Sullivan Counties, for being named our Volunteer of the Month for October 2024!
Rebecca has gone to Germany and back for her team, and she’s loved every bit of it. From watching on the sidelines as a parent in 2011 to leading the Bradford/Sullivan Counties program to success, Rebecca has experienced firsthand the impact Special Olympics Pennsylvania, and its opportunities, has had on athletes, volunteers, and families.
To celebrate Rebecca as the Volunteer of the Month, we had the honor of chatting with her and learning more about her “why.” Why does Rebecca coach? Why is she inspired by Special Olympics Pennsylvania? Why is this organization important to her? What we took away was inspiring and motivational.
Thank you for all that you do, Rebecca. We are honored to be a piece of your everyday life.
“I coach everything we have. I help out with swimming, I’m not head coach there. I coach track, bowling, bocce, and LDR/W.
I got involved [with Special Olympics Pennsylvania] because my daughter Anne is an athlete. She started through school… Anne has been an athlete for at least 13 years.
I’m a learning support teacher as well, so we had some contact with Bradford/Sullivan prior to COVID. As a learning support teacher, I took some athletes to a one-time local event for track that season, and I used to take my students to that.
Then, when my daughter hit seventh grade, she got involved with her school district, which is different than the one I taught in. She started going to events other than the local ones. Bowling is where she first really started, and then traveled to Penn State. In 2014, she was chosen to go to Nationals, and I was still going to events as a parent at that point in time.
After that, there were some changes in our management team, so six years ago or so, I took over the managerial position and then that got me into coaching as well.”
“I do this mostly because of the athletes themselves. They would be so devastated if they didn’t have this in their lives, so I think I volunteer for them. I have an athlete besides my daughter that I’m mentoring for Athlete Leadership, and I know it means the most to him…
For the mentor position, you have to go to the Athlete Leadership schools and get the athletes that are wanting to take those leadership roles. This particular athlete had already done Global Messenger training, and then just this year, I took him and my daughter to do the Healthy Athletes training. So, I have to support them in their goals that they set for themselves within that program. For him, he has to do so many speeches, and for Healthy Athletes, now we do a walking club this winter. We have two sites that I’m going to for walking clubs.
Athlete Leadership gives them the social skills that make them a better member of their community. They’re more than just a Special Olympics athlete. To give these opportunities supports inclusiveness.”
“I love the way that everyone’s involved here in [Special Olympics Pennsylvania]. I have some athletes who don’t want to go to competitions, and we can still include them. They can come to practice and be involved in all those things, but they can bow out if they don’t want to go on the traveling part. I love that we have all the events for them to go to because that’s what they love to do… We wouldn’t have traveling opportunities if they didn’t have events for us.”
“I know there have been a lot of questions around regionalization. I try to tell our community that it’s still athletes from our area that are going to participate. If the money doesn’t come to us directly, there’s still a dollar amount per athlete to be participating. So, if we want athletes to participate, then you know, we have to go out and fundraise for the good of the whole state, and we get our fair share. We have to contribute in order to keep the doors open for all our athletes to be part of it. I think that’s the biggest roadblock that we’ve gone through… It took me a little while to organize my brain and wrap my head around it, and I think that’s the way I want to look at it. It’s that there is a dollar amount per athlete that it costs, and we need to try to contribute to that in order for us to continue.”
“I think the advice is to get to know at least one athlete because that builds your connection to your ‘why.’ Why you’d be there, and then to try to at least come and start out as a one-day volunteer or something. Maybe you don’t want to jump in. But when you step back and you go to one competition and you see the athletes and what it means to them, then you may be able to wrap your head around how the organization works and how we may be able to help you commit some time. This could help us get more athletes and help out the volunteers we do have. I get to points where I’m burnt out. That’s the biggest thing, it’s trying to get people in. That’s the easiest way, for them to develop a relationship with athletes because that’s the real reason why you do it.
Oh, my favorite memory was, goodness, to see Nationals. I did also get to go see Worlds, because one of our athletes went to Germany last year and I traveled to go watch. So, I would say those big events, and then how much that motivates the rest of the athletes to work harder. We saw so much more push coming to us when they would only do a 1500 meter run and now, they’re saying, ‘I wanna do a 5K, I wanna do a 10K,’ so the events themselves were great. But the fallout from those events and the impact it had on our athletes, the motivation was probably even better.”
Here’s what people had to say while nominating Coach Rebecca!:
“My coach always makes practice fun. She helps us work on our goals. She does awesome with me and my teammates, that is why she should be nominated.” – Tyesha Wolfe
“She has the compassion of the sports she coaches, the love for the athletes, manages practices well, and arranges transportation for those in need and makes each awarded event so special!” – Bonnie DeFelice
“Becky goes above and beyond for the athletes and organizations. She truly creates a great environment for the athletes.” – Denise Hibbard
