Special Olympics South Florida – Broward County will host its 13 annual Sallarulo’s Race for Champions on Saturday, Nov. 3. The event will take place on NSU’s Fort Lauderdale/Davie campus, with registration taking place at Fellowship Way between the Carl DeSantis Building and the Rose and Alfred Miniaci Performing Arts Center, beginning at 8 a.m..
Sallarulo’s Race for Champions is Special Olympics South Florida – Broward County’s largest event of the year. All proceeds from the race will go towards the organization in order to support its mission— arranging training and athletic competitions in a variety of Olympic-like sports for children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The organization currently supports more than 6,000 athletes in 23 sports. Participants are given continuing opportunities to develop fitness, enjoy exercising and demonstrate courage with other Special Olympics athletes and the community.
“This is a day to promote inclusion— to make our athletes a part of the community, and to give the community a chance to see the abilities of our athletes rather than focus on their disabilities,” said Linda Mills, director for Special Olympics South Florida – Broward County. “One of the things that we would like to do on this day is to show everybody the abilities of our athletes, include everybody and show everybody how we’re more similar than we are different.”
NSU students, staff and faculty are encouraged to sign up to be runners, walkers or virtual runners for the 2018 race. With the code “NSU,” anyone from the university who wishes to take part will be given free entry. “We love to have NSU included— it’s our home, here on campus,” expressed Mills. NSU is the only private university in the country with a local Special Olympics chapter on its campus, now permanently residing in the Noël P. Brown Sports Center. This was made possible with the help of Don Taft, who was committed to supporting special-needs children and young adults. In addition, Paul Sallarulo, creator of Sallarulo’s Race for Champions, is a member of the NSU Board of Trustees.
Free breakfast and lunch will be provided for participants, and they will also receive a t-shirt and medal upon registration. The Miami Heat Dancers and several forms of entertainment will be at the event as well. Anyone who wishes to sign up or volunteer for the event can visit sallarulosraceforchampions.org/, or specialolympicsflorida.org/broward/ for more information about the organization.
