Meet Team Delaware’s Youth Leadership Team

Mentor
Nate Threatts, SODE Manager of Unified Champion Schools (Dover)

Athletes
Ammar McNair (Camden-Wyoming), Alex Failing (Dover)

---

For the past nine months, 27 of the 29 members of Team Delaware have been hard at work training in preparation to compete at the USA Games. For the other two members of the delegation, their hard work starts at the Games and then continues after they return.

Caesar Rodney High School senior Ammar McNair and junior Alex Failing are attending the USA Games as part of the Youth Leadership Experience. They will join 102 other youth leaders with and without intellectual disabilities who will be in Orlando to take their leadership development to the next level.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go through a unique training and share ideas on inclusion with students from all across the country,” said Nate Threatts, SODE manager of Unified Champion Schools who will attend as the pair’s mentor.

---

---

Over the course of the USA Games, the leaders take part in four rotations to give them an in-depth look at what it takes to be part of a Special Olympics event and learn about all the pieces that make the Special Olympics movement so amazing.

The first rotation is “volunteer shadowing” to learn the variety of career fields involved in executing a major event like the USA Games. The second involves participants creating on-the-ground social media content to gain a better understanding of what the Games mean to attendees, athletes and supporters.

The third and fourth rotations involve a “unified sports experience” supporting recreational activities that athletes will participate in during their down time and helping to organize “young athletes festivals” at a variety of locations in the Orlando area for local children ages 2 – 7.

“The students will come back with goals and a plan to improve inclusion in their school, their community and throughout the state,” Threatts said. “I am looking forward to being able to make sure the goals set in Orlando get accomplished back here in Delaware.”

For more information about Team Delaware, click here.