Volunteer Opportunities Abroad

    For those looking to break into the competitive world of journalism (新闻工作), this is for you! You will be working at “The Village”, an English and Romanian language magazine. As a writer you will work on special tasks, reporting local events with guidance from the editor. You will be interviewing local people, writing reports, and taking photographs. You will also have the chance to live with a local host family to experience their culture.

    Volunteers joining our project (项目) in Cambodia will travel to the island of Koh Sdach. You will become part of this tiny island, learn to dive (潜水), and take part in valuable social projects.

    During your stay you will complete a course to learn to dive. After that you will take part in dives to clean up rubbish under the sea and collect information on rare fish. During the two weeks you may also have the chance to join in a village fun day where volunteers play games with the village children.

    On this project you will spend two weeks living with a host family and coaching soccer in friendly West Africa! You will spend your two weeks in Accra helping local children develop their soccer skills. You will develop their skills and confidence while having fun playing soccer at the same time.

    Montgomery County Special Olympics held its eighth yearly show of unified (联合的)basketball at Blessed Sacrament School. The gym was filled with cheerleaders (啦啦队队员), parents and friends. The walls were covered with posters made by third­and­fourth­graders at the school. And all the elementary, middle and high school unified teams were playing hard and having fun. Every basket, no matter which team scores, is cheered and celebrated.

    Special Olympics support more than 20 unified games. What are unified games? They are programs designed for players with special needs. In the games, they play with kids who are volunteers, called unified partners. The special athletes are unable to play normally like other healthy kids, and some of them are wheelchair (轮椅) users. In basketball, the unified partners rebound (抢得篮板球), pass and sometimes push a special athlete's wheelchair. As Brian Ross, a seventh­grader at St. Albans School in Washington, says, "You just try to help and get everyone to take part."

    Some special athletes have come a long way to be where they are. Caleb Head is a 15­year­old special athlete. When he started, Caleb would only stand at the door and watch. Then Caleb began to practice his shooting but still would not play in the games. Now Caleb runs up and down looking for his shot.

The special athletes are not the only ones who benefit (受益) from unified sports; the unified partners do, too. Marla Grusin, whose son Tyler is a special athlete, says every kid should come to a Special Olympics game. If they do, they will learn "to share the ball" and that the game "is not all about me".

Not a bad lesson for any athlete.

— can I. Let's stop here for a rest.