FREEPORT — It took two determined parents and a passionate educator, but the Special Olympics will return to Walton County.
After settling for ifs and maybes for too long, the county is well on its way to hosting events and training intellectually disabled athletes through the internationally recognized program, said Mike Schumacher, a parent and recent Walton County transplant who is leading the resurgence with fellow parent Jennifer Fitzgerald.
“It just took somebody to say, ‘Let’s get this started,’ ” he said. “It’s our program and we have to own it, and it’s intimidating but it’s good now because we have a direction.”
The county had a Special Olympics program until about two years ago when the person who oversaw it retired, said Danielle Spears, the director of public relations for Special Olympics Florida.
When no one stepped up to take the reins, the program lapsed. By the time Schumacher and Fitzgerald started to ask about it, the Special Olympics had faded from public memory.
Both parents were told repeatedly that they could enroll their children in Special Olympics programs in neighboring Okaloosa or Bay counties.
That response was a surprise to Schumacher, who previously lived near Washington, D.C. in Virginia and was accustomed to programs for his autistic son Jake with a passion for basketball. And it was an insurmountable hurdle for single working mother Fitzgerald, who simply couldn’t drive her daughter Olivia, who has Down syndrome, to the other counties.
“We weren’t going to settle for it,” Schumacher said. “It was unacceptable.”
Rather than wait for more parents to come forward, Fitzgerald and Schumacher started reaching out to people they thought could help.
“We were completely lost at times,” Fitzgerald said. “I think (Olivia will) be totally excited to have something she can do and work towards … so it’s just my motivation.”
They ran into a few brick walls before finding two people who have helped propel the dream forward: Eugene Mims, a local correctional probation specialist, and Charlie Marello, the principal of their children’s middle school.
In Mims they found a champion for the cause who had long raised awareness and money in the community for the Special Olympics with a law enforcement run.
When he heard about the effort, Mims gladly accepted the suggestion to use the Torch Run on March 28 to increase public awareness even more.
“I hope it’s a building process,” Mims said. “The Special Olympics is such a great opportunity for a lot of people.”
They also asked Marello if he could help.
“There was absolutely no way I was not going to be involved,” the Emerald Coast Middle School principal said. “It’s something that I’m extremely passionate about, but to tell you the truth, I’m just a vessel.”
While Marello might be willing to downplay his role, Schumacher and Fitzgerald are not. They said without him stepping forward and making it a priority for principals across the school district, the Special Olympics in Walton County wouldn’t be where it is now.
“To me, it starts and dies with the schools,” Schumacher said.
To help get even more people involved, they’ve organized a community meeting next week at Freeport High School so they can help ensure the program begins sooner rather than later.
Once it’s under way, Schumacher said he hopes the Special Olympics will “mushroom out” and start a variety of other programs for people with disabilities, from baseball leagues to artistic ventures.
The timeline isn’t written in stone yet, but organizers already are planning a second meeting in April and a field day to kick off the program, Fitzgerald said.
“It’s onward,” she said. “I’ve done too much now (to quit).”
WANT TO ATTEND?: A community meeting about the Special Olympics will be at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at Freeport High School. To contact Mike Schumacher for more information, call 213-0312 or email him at schumacher22@verizon.net. To contact Jennifer Fitzgerald for more information, email her at fitzgeraldjennifer2000@yahoo.com.
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Katie Tammen at 850-315-4440 or ktammen@nwfdailynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @KatieTnwfdn.