MERCY CARE TO SPONSOR HEALTHY ATHLETES PROGRAM DURING THE SPECIAL OLYMPICS ARIZONA FALL GAMES

PROGRAM WILL PROVIDE FREE HEALTH SCREENINGS AND EDUCATION TO MORE THAN 200 SOAZ ATHLETES

Special Olympics Arizona (SOAZ) President and CEO Jamie Heckerman announced today a partnership with Mercy Care to serve as the Presenting Sponsor for SOAZ’s Healthy Athletes program at the 2021 Fall Games, which will be held in Goodyear and Peoria, Oct. 22-23.

Healthy Athletes provides health screenings and education to Special Olympics athletes while changing the way future health professionals interact with people with intellectual disabilities.

“We are so happy to partner again with Mercy Care and thankful for their support of such a great program like Healthy Athletes,” Heckerman said. “Health care is extremely important to the health and overall well-being of our athletes, so being able to offer this to so many during our Fall Games has a significant impact.”

Healthy Athletes will provide complimentary medical exams to Fall Games participants that will include Fit Feet, FUNFitness and Special Smiles programs, and will take place at Pioneer Park in Peoria from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.; with Special Smiles taking place Oct. 22-23, while Fit Feet and FUNFitness will be available on Oct. 23.

Special Olympics Healthy Athletes started in 1997 and began offering free health screenings and education to Special Olympics athletes worldwide in a welcoming, fun environment. Since then, Healthy Athletes has delivered more than 2 million free health screenings internationally and trained close to 300,000 health professionals and students to treat people with intellectual disabilities. Moreover, Special Olympics programs have been able to expand their reach of Healthy Athletes by offering 123,896 screenings since 2016 in new locations or in new disciplines.

The 2021 Fall Games Presented by Casino Arizona will feature more than 1,000 SOAZ athletes statewide celebrating Inclusion and showcasing their skills in swimming, softball and bocce.

The swimming competition will take place at Southwest Valley YMCA in Goodyear, while the Bocce and Softball events will be held at Pioneer Community Park in Peoria. All competitions will take place over two days – Friday, Oct. 22 and Saturday, Oct. 23. SOAZ merchandise also will be available for purchase at both locations from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. to help support Special Olympics Arizona.