Community Partner Spotlight

Special Olympics Iowa

Special Olympics Iowa

Special Olympics Iowa (SOIA) offers year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports to children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Their mission is to offer athletes opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, and experience the joy of participating in an athletic competition. Each year, SOIA serves over 16,300 athletes and unified partners.

Our long-standing partnership with Special Olympics Iowa began in 2009. Since then, Sammons Financial Group has proudly donated more than $770,000 to various SOIA events and programs, including the state softball tournament and summer bocce tournament; play days that introduce young children to Special Olympics; and the Over the Edge fundraiser in which participants raise money for a chance to rappel from one of the tallest buildings in Des Moines, Iowa. Sammons Financial Group also purchased a large conversion van for SOIA to transport their athletic supplies to and from venues to serve more athletes.

Recently, we sponsored SOIA’s new Unified Champion Schools program, providing resources to over 50 schools for activities that encourage friendships between Special Olympics athletes and the Unified Partners in these schools. Each school that participates receives government funding for up to the first three years. As a presenting sponsor of $25,000, Sammons Financial Group enabled SOIA to host the first Youth Summit in Iowa, and leverage additional grant money from the Department of Education to support additional schools.

In addition to generous funding, Sammons Financial Group has supported Special Olympics Iowa through employee volunteers. This includes a member of our leadership team, who has served on the Special Olympics Board of Directors for over six years. Our employees frequently offer their time to organize and run events hosted by SOIA. In addition, Sammons Financial Group staff have served as coaches for the Special Olympics softball team. Overall, employees donate an average of 1,300 hours of their time to SOIA on an annual basis

Learn more about Special Olympics Iowa by visiting their website.

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