Frankie Smith’s involvement with the Special Olympics spans athlete, fundraiser and walking encyclopedia, which means there are no short conversations on the subject in the Street Roots’ office.
“I’ve been doing Special Olympics on and off for the past 10 years. I’ve done track and field, bowling, golf, skiing – I did skiing for the first time five years ago. This year, I’m doing skiing, track and field and bowling…”
Frankie, 31, has been a Street Roots vendor for about two years now, using the money to supplement assistance that allows him to live on his own with his service dog in Portland. He is as dogged on the slopes as he is in selling the paper, and hopes to raise enough money from sales to buy his own new skis, bindings and equipment. He has won many medals over the years, but says he lost about 10 when his belongings were thrown away after a rental dispute. Today, he holds on to only gold medals from his decades of competition.
Of all the sports he’s competed in, Frankie says skiing is his favorite.
“It’s more physical, and it’s more dare-deviling,” he says. “It’s the competition... I’m an athlete.”
This year, Frankie hopes to rebuild his collection of medals at the State Special Olympics Winter Games Feb. 23-25 on Mount Bachelor. Frankie hopes someday to raise his game to the level of national competition, and ultimately, the World Games. He speaks proudly of his friend Molly Looney, who will be representing Oregon in the Winter Games in Shanghai, China.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance to do something like that.”
As a member of the downhill skiing team, Frankie has been training since January, getting up at 4:30 Sunday mornings to catch a ride to Mount Hood Meadows on Mount Hood. The team practices until 2:30 and then head back home. It’s a regimen that relies on countless dedicated volunteers, and Frankie hope more people will get involved.
“If people have never experienced Special Olympics and want to be a volunteer, come and out try it out,” he says. “It’s nice and fun and you get to meet a lot of new people and have competitions. Everybody has fun doing it. The coaches have fund being with the athletes. The volunteers have fun being with the athletes, and moms and dads have fun just seeing everybody doing it.”
As a fund-raiser, Frankie has raised thousands of dollars for Special Olympic events, soliciting businesses and going door-to-door for support. As a die-hard supporter, he can recite the statistics of those involved – more than 2.25 million athletes worldwide — and the history of this program launched nearly 40 years ago through the work of Eunice Kennedy Shriver.
As a member of the famed Kennedy family and sister to President John F. Kennedy, Shriver saw her sister Rosemary, who had an intellectual disability, lobotomized and institutionalized by her father, Joseph Kennedy. Seeing the devastating impact of this decision, the family, under Shriver’s leadership, steered the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation toward improving the way society deals with people with intellectual disabilities. In the early ‘60s, Shriver created a day camp on her lawn in Rockville, Ma., where a variety of sports and activities allowed people to channel and express their internal athlete. Her efforts grew, and in 1968, she opened the first International Special Olympics Games in Chicago, and announced the creation of the new national program, now a worldwide movement, called Special Olympics.
So what do the athletes of today take away from the experience?
“Life changes, new skills,” Frankie says. “People who are blind going down the slopes for the Special Olympics is pretty amazing if you think about it.”
