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Nan is hoping to attend Harvard, so she can stay in town to nurture her new company. FAST's office is in the heart of Boston, in Copley Square, compliments of INA. --Reported by Tom Witkowski/Boston
A TEAM FOR LIFE In Coach Brimer's eyes, everyone is a winner
In fairness to those of us who have done less for our fellow man, Ryan Brimer of Boonville, Mo., might have been genetically predisposed to dedication. His mother is a special-education teacher; his father is sports director for Special Olympics in Missouri. Together, the two have given it 22 years of service. Volunteering for Special Olympics himself never challenged Ryan, but five years ago, when he was a 15-year-old high school sophomore, he overheard a snatch of conversation his parents were having about something called Unified Sports, a Special Olympics program that pairs disabled athletes with nonimpaired athletes in competitive teams. Ryan, who played basketball, football and tennis, was intrigued.
He promptly posted a sign-up sheet for a Unified basketball team in his mom's classroom. Seven students with a range of learning disabilities wrote down their names. Along with Ryan and two friends of his, they formed the first Unified Sports team in town. Today, thanks largely to Ryan's initiative, close to 200 area residents (his sister and twin brothers included), ranging in age from 10 to 30, are engaged in Unified Sports, not only basketball but also bowling, track and field, soccer, volleyball, boccie, softball and tennis.
Everyone wins, say those who participate. House painter Brian Lutz, 27, signed on with the basketball team three years ago, just to "mess around with my brother [who is disabled] and get back in shape." It has advantages over his church league's basketball team, he says. "There the competition can be fierce. Here we're just having fun. That's what it's all about."
In fact, it's about more than that. Eugene Phiffer, 21, a cognitively impaired basketball player, has been given what he had been denied just five years ago by his high school basketball team--acceptance and appreciation for his skill on the court. "They had their noses in the air," he says, referring to his high school teammates. "I couldn't play like that." So he quit and plays Unified ball instead. Fresh from the confidence he gained playing for Ryan's team in the 1995 World Games in Connecticut, Phiffer went on to earn certification as a nurse's assistant and now works in a nursing home.
These days, Ryan, now 20 and newly wed, studies elementary education at Central Methodist College in nearby Fayette, where he holds down a part-time job as a salesman for telecommunications products, sings in an a cappella choir and devotes 30 hours a week as a coach or player in a variety of Unified sports.
Back in Boonville, which is still home, he takes time out from his Unified Sports basketball team's practice at the high school to reflect on what it was like when he was a second-string player in this very same gym. "I've spent my time on the bench," he says. "I know how it feels. I do this to see the expressions on the players' faces. I can see how this has changed a lot of bad attitudes, a lot of lives." --Reported by Wendy Cole/Boonville
TAKING ACTION An immigrant breaks down racial barriers