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 Rose Matusheski (Montgomery County) on being our Volunteer of the Month for September 2025!
“In the summer of 2024 I saw an add on social media pop up [for Summer Games] and thought ‘Oh, that looks really fun! I’m going to sign up and do that.’
And that was my first experience volunteering. It was a blast.
I had heard of Special Olympics in high school and I did a lot of volunteering with adults and people with special needs. I wanted to get back into volunteering and I just gave it a go.
The athletes were amazing. Just how genuine and happy and excited they were. It rubbed off on me and all the volunteers were so nice. It stuck out. I want to keep doing it year after year. Everyone was so glad to be up there and helping out. I did scorekeeping for golf and softball and it was so fun.
I think it’s all about the connections that you make with everyone. You’ll see familiar faces. Athletes or other volunteers will recognize you. You’re getting to see all these people again. I think that’s what sicks out. They’re giving you memories and you’re getting to make memories with them, too.
For any new volunteers, come in with an open mind for sure. Be ready to have fun cause you’re definitely gonna have a lot of fun. And you’ll leave from it with such an optimistic outlook on life.
I’m just honored to get to volunteer and work with this organization and to give back to the community in any way — a community that includes all types of people from anywhere and everywhere.
I think I’m just going to keep going and see where it takes me. I’ve just enjoyed all of it. I can see me doing this for as long as I can walk, talk and everything. You really learn how to be kind.”
