Key West International Airport hosted a field trip on July 10 for athletes attending the inaugural Special Olympics Florida Camp Shriver.
Campers learned how to navigate security, took a tour of the airport’s new Concourse A, and participated in a scavenger hunt to explore the facility. Ruth Coleman, Special Olympics Florida sports and training manager for Monroe County, also created faux boarding passes for the field trip attendees.
The Concourse A tour ended at Gate 8, where each camper’s boarding pass was scanned and campers walked EYW’s longest boarding bridge. The field trip ended with lunch provided by Chili’s, where the campers also received cookies and goodie bags from the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office before departing.
Key West International Airport has been a sponsor of Special Olympics Florida since 2024 and its officials regularly attend Monroe County games in support of athletes from schools throughout the Florida Keys.
What is Camp Shriver?
When people speak of the origin of Special Olympics, they look first to Camp Shriver, founded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver in the early 1960s. One woman’s dream of transforming the lives of people with intellectual disabilities — while changing public perceptions — started in her own backyard.
In 1960, a woman from Bethesda, Maryland, phoned Eunice and said she was having trouble finding a summer camp for her child with an intellectual disability. The child wouldn’t be accepted into a mainstream camp, and, at that time, the public education system couldn’t figure out what to do with special-needs children during the school year, never mind supply them with summer activities. Then another woman told her almost the same thing.
“Enough,” said Eunice, which in her world, always meant “do something about it.”
Thus was born Camp Shriver, which she started at her Maryland farm, Timberlawn. Eunice asked schools and clinics in her area to provide names of special-needs children who might be interested. Then she recruited high school and college students to act as counselors. It was almost a one-on-one situation — 34 children and 26 counselors.
The camp was an instant success. The children swam, kicked soccer balls, shot baskets and rode horses under the summer sun. Perhaps most importantly, the young counselors, wary at first, began to see, as Eunice already had, that these children were not “difficult,” “unteachable” or “belligerent.” They merely wanted to have fun — just like every other kid.
As the camp flourished, people from the community came out to visit and watch, followed by representatives of the parks department and public-school system.
At the camp, Shriver insisted there be an interaction between children with special needs and typical children. Her own son, Tim, was just 3 when the camp began. Tim was paired with a young boy with intellectual disabilities named Wendell. They swam together, ate together, ran together and sometimes got in trouble together.
Camp Shriver has grown exponentially over the years, and Special Olympics Florida proudly carries on Eunice Shriver’s legacy by continuing to offer Camp Shriver in the Sunshine State.
More information is available from Coleman at 305-923-0288.
