Last year’s OneBerkeley United Games event welcomed 11 schools from around the district as students with special needs gathered for a day of fun and games.
This year the event nearly doubled in size, with 20 Berkeley County School District schools flocking to the Moncks Corner Regional Recreation Complex on Friday morning for twice the fun.
The whole purpose of the OneBerkeley United Games is to promote connectivity between the district’s students with special needs and their friends from the general education classrooms. It was a chance for students to get outside of the classroom for a few hours, let loose and just have a lot of fun with classmates and teachers.
The games made up a pretty epic field day event for the district’s students with special needs, their teachers, their “buddies” from the general education classes, and for a few visiting parents.
The efforts are near and dear to the event’s lead organizer, Foxbank Elementary Principal Natalie Lockliear, who wants to promote inclusivity with the district’s students with special needs.
“I feel like sometimes they get overlooked, and (that) opportunities…are not always given inclusively, and I feel like that’s something we should all be looking for,” she said, adding, “We need to be more aware, and I just think they deserve so much more.”
BCSD high school athletes and teacher cadets also participated in the event by monitoring the game stations. Students from Berkeley Middle’s Unified P.E. students also volunteered their time to help Friday morning; a Unified P.E. class promotes inclusiveness and creates an opportunity for students of varying ability levels to come together with general education students to grow with one another through fitness, sports, leadership and wellness activities.
“It’s a really fun day, and I hope the kids have great memories to take with them when they leave,” Lockliear said.
A few student athletes kicked off Friday's festivities by leading the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by the National Anthem. Next, in true Olympics style, student representatives from each school joined Keaun Thompson (School Resource Officer at Berkeley Altnerative and a member of the Moncks Corner Police Department) on the field as he lit the ceremonial torch to officially start the games. Each school then paraded around the field and went off to the different game stations to start having fun.
Many parents also came out, either as volunteers or to watch their children have fun from the sidelines – Devon Forest Elementary parent Ashley Morris was among them.
“It’s fun – the kids look like are having a good time,” Morris said, adding, “It’s nice for inclusion; she (my child) doesn’t get many opportunities to do that so it’s nice that the school district wanted to set something up for everybody.”
Westview Elementary parent Nicole Valentine echoed similar thoughts.
“It’s great having everyone out here to support our kids – and really coming together as a district,” she said.
Champion Donors
Harmon Foxbank
Santee Cooper
Smyth Whitley, LLC
Swamp Fox Agency
Town of Moncks Corner
Friend Donors
4Imprint
Home Telecom
Carolina Life Real Estate
Coastal Air Solutions
Seaton Law Firm
TRG Communities
Partner Donors
Essentials Coffee, LLC
Kiwanis Club of Moncks Corner
Steve and Karen Whitley