VJA Special Olympics

08/31/2026

Weekend Recap: Unified Generation Committee (UGC)
Kareem and Luke spent the weekend in Normal with other UGC committee members from across middle and high schools across IL! ⚡️

08/31/2026

Weekend Recap: Bowling
Our traditional Bolts showed up and showed out at Regionals on Saturday!! 🎳 Below are the results:
Anthony - 2nd 🥈
Nathan - 3rd 🥉
Sam - 1st 🥇
Evie - 2nd 🥈
Devin - 1st 🥇
Matthew - 1st 🥇
Ameer - 4th
Taylor - 4th
Ethan - 3rd 🥉
Rami - 1st 🥇
We are so proud of each of them for their efforts and sportsmanship! Congrats to Sam, Devin, Matthew, and Rami for earning 1st place and qualifying for State in December!!!

08/29/2026

Tomorrow our traditional 🎳 bolts compete at Regionals! ⚡️

08/27/2026

Bocce Families ⚫️🟡 Please be sure to check Parent Square for the link to this season’s shirts. They will serve as our competition shirts this year! ⚡️

08/25/2026

the storm is rolling in ⚫️⛈️🟡 2026 traditional + unified bocce

08/03/2026

🚨 We’re shifting our fall Unified sport to Unified bocce! All athletes and partners interested should fill out to the Google Form located in the comments, the link in our bio, and (soon) Parent Square. Questions? Email Coach Shalash or Coach Malcom.

07/29/2026

Special Olympics Illinois is proud to be a finalist for the 2026 Cubs Charities Community Awards presented by the Robert R. McCormick Foundation! The awards recognize nonprofits advancing youth development through sports and education.

Help us earn a $10,000 grant by voting once per day through August 21 at https://atmlb.com/4pLpMZa. Voting is limited to one vote per day, per email address.

07/15/2026

We love Coach Shalash!!!!!! 🖤💛⚡️

This month, Special Olympics Illinois is proud to feature Nowal Shalash, a special education teacher at Victor J. Andrew High School, coach, and member of the SOILL Unified Champion Schools' Education Leaders Network (ELN).

As a self-described "huge advocate for Unified sports programming," Nowal is helping create opportunities for students through coaching, leadership, and her commitment to growing Unified initiatives.

When asked what inclusion means to her, she shared, "Inclusion means creating an environment where every individual is truly valued and celebrated." Read Nowal's full story and learn how she's making a difference through Unified sports and inclusive communities: https://bit.ly/4wPM26R

Thank you, Nowal, for being the ! | Special Olympics Illinois- Region E

06/29/2026

Thank you to Dr. Othman and our Board of Education for recognizing our track and field State qualifiers at last week’s board meeting! 🖤💛 We also want to thank the families for their support to make it a successful season, and weekend! ☀️

06/26/2026

2nd Place 🥈🇺🇸 USA Games 2026
Grayden Alexander and Osaze Ikponmwosa competed alongside BBCHS Special Olympics athletes and partners Anthony Boyce, Jeremiah (JJ) Jones, Calvin Kohl, Georgia Kohl, Sam LaMore, Isabelle Trudeau to represent Illinois at USA Games!!! We are so proud of the effort everyone put in, including Coach Duke Wilson from BBCHS. They battled all week and ended up bringing home 2nd place!!! 🏀
We encourage you watch the video of Osaze’s 3 pointer from today’s championship game. It’s a great shot, but watch everyone. Listen to everyone. That is the epitome of Special Olympics Unified!!! Regardless of who you are rooting for going into the game, you root for everyone!!! 🥳