Camden Central School District -

On Thursday, January 30th, student-athlete leaders, teachers, coaches, and athletic directors from across the area convened at Camden High School as Special Olympics New York hosted a Youth Activation Committee session. The Youth Activation Committee is a summit featuring schools from around the area that focuses on inclusivity in sport, school-wide involvement, and inter-scholastic collaboration. It serves to build excitement and drive engagement in the upcoming Unified Sports seasons.

In the Unified Sports program, students with disabilities and students without disabilities all compete together on the same court, field, or alley. Camden currently participates in Unified Basketball and Bowling, and has enjoyed success in both.

Students from Vernon Verona Sherrill, Central Valley Academy, Adirondack, Whitesboro, and Camden attended this year’s meeting. Representing Camden this year was Zachary Giarrusso, Ryen Lago, Katherine Redden, Liz Conover, Kamryn Gloude, and teachers Diana Carpenter and Shannon McPheron.

As part of this year’s summit, students had the opportunity to learn more about a growing sports participation opportunity in the state that is accessible for many: Bocce. The sport is near and dear to the hearts of many in the area with the World Series of Bocce held in Rome each year, and school districts in Western New York have recently added Bocce to their Unified Sports programs on an intramural basis with great success. The accessible and easily adaptable nature of Bocce fits well into the Unified philosophy by including an even wider range of students than ever before.

Special Olympics New York provided a demonstration court for students to give the game a try in the school’s gymnasium, and to build an understanding of its rules in hopes that it will drum up interest at their respective schools.

Athletic Director Josh Mazzaferro, a Rome native and past World Series of Bocce participant, was proud to have the opportunity to host this event.

“As a school, this opportunity shows our commitment to providing opportunities for students to learn about the importance of leadership within Unified Sports,” Mazzaferro said. “I hope our kids know that they can truly make an impact within their school and community by getting involved and promoting Unified Sports. The Special Olympics did a great job of providing students with activities and ideas to bring back to their school, so my hope is that everyone was able to take at least one thing from today and put it to use as we kick off the season!”