The first ever Eunice Kennedy Shriver Day is happening on September 25th and we need your help to reach 100,000 Acts of Unity! Watch this great PSA narrated by the incomparable Robin Roberts from “Good Morning America” and go to www.eksday.org to learn more. And stay tuned for some great social media tools that we’re sharing to help you spread the word about EKS Day!
Friday, September 10, 2010
Thursday, September 9, 2010
The Road to Happiness
What makes us happy? In recent decades, researchers in psychology and economics have started using the tools of their profession to develop sophisticated, reliable models to answer this ageless question across countries and through time.
The emergence of positive psychology in the 1970s resulted from a desire among psychologists to emphasize individual strength and virtue in a field that had traditionally focused on treating mental illnesses and addressing emotional deficits. Since then, positive psychologists have made a lot of progress in identifying the things that bring us happiness. They have found that we experience happiness in many ways, through our emotional orientation to the past, present, and future; through the activities in which we are engaged; and in our ability to use our personal strengths and talents in work, leisure, relationships, and to contribute to something greater than ourselves.
Paralleling this development in psychology was a similar movement in the field of economics. Beginning in the 1970s, researchers started to find some truth to the axiom that “money doesn’t buy happiness” when they discovered that that nation’s level of happiness increases more slowly once it reaches a certain level of wealth. As a result, many economists believe measures of happiness complement measure of income or wealth by providing a more holistic gauge of well-being and life satisfaction.
Yesterday, one of my longtime friends, Dr. Elizabeth Dykens, Professor of Psychology and Human Development at Vanderbilt University and Co-Director of the Vanderbilt Kennedy University Center for Excellence on Developmental Disabilities, led a wonderful discussion at Special Olympics about how we can use the tools of positive psychology to study the happiness of people with intellectual disabilities. She is interested in learning the ways in which people with intellectual disabilities find happiness, hope, and contentment and live engaged lives with their families and communities.
So many times people with intellectual disabilities are defined by negatives—what they do not have or cannot do relative to others—causing many of us to forget that people with intellectual disabilities can be happy, lead meaningful lives, and bring happiness and fulfillment to the lives of others. In fact many studies note that having a family member with an intellectual disability can help us to lead richer, more meaningful lives, teach us patience, tolerance, and make us more able to accept differences with others.
My own experience suggests that millions of people with intellectual disabilities around the world lead engaged and happy lives, and find tremendous joy and meaning in relationships with family and friends. You don’t have to be a researcher to know this to be true.
What is your road to happiness?
The emergence of positive psychology in the 1970s resulted from a desire among psychologists to emphasize individual strength and virtue in a field that had traditionally focused on treating mental illnesses and addressing emotional deficits. Since then, positive psychologists have made a lot of progress in identifying the things that bring us happiness. They have found that we experience happiness in many ways, through our emotional orientation to the past, present, and future; through the activities in which we are engaged; and in our ability to use our personal strengths and talents in work, leisure, relationships, and to contribute to something greater than ourselves.
Paralleling this development in psychology was a similar movement in the field of economics. Beginning in the 1970s, researchers started to find some truth to the axiom that “money doesn’t buy happiness” when they discovered that that nation’s level of happiness increases more slowly once it reaches a certain level of wealth. As a result, many economists believe measures of happiness complement measure of income or wealth by providing a more holistic gauge of well-being and life satisfaction.
Yesterday, one of my longtime friends, Dr. Elizabeth Dykens, Professor of Psychology and Human Development at Vanderbilt University and Co-Director of the Vanderbilt Kennedy University Center for Excellence on Developmental Disabilities, led a wonderful discussion at Special Olympics about how we can use the tools of positive psychology to study the happiness of people with intellectual disabilities. She is interested in learning the ways in which people with intellectual disabilities find happiness, hope, and contentment and live engaged lives with their families and communities.
So many times people with intellectual disabilities are defined by negatives—what they do not have or cannot do relative to others—causing many of us to forget that people with intellectual disabilities can be happy, lead meaningful lives, and bring happiness and fulfillment to the lives of others. In fact many studies note that having a family member with an intellectual disability can help us to lead richer, more meaningful lives, teach us patience, tolerance, and make us more able to accept differences with others.
My own experience suggests that millions of people with intellectual disabilities around the world lead engaged and happy lives, and find tremendous joy and meaning in relationships with family and friends. You don’t have to be a researcher to know this to be true.
What is your road to happiness?
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Special Olympics Camp Shriver Is Open!!
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Changing the World One Smile at a Time
I'm always blown away anytime I get to visit our Healthy Athletes venue and at these 2010 Special Olympics USA National Games I was particularly in awe of the amazing men and women of the Nebraska Dental Association who are among so many of the health professionals VOLUNTEERING their time to screen and treat our athletes - for free! I got the opportunity to chat with Dr. Jim Jenkins and I wanted to share our conversation below. You can also read his letter to his volunteer staff about this amazing clinic.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Poem by Anthony Marabella
Waiting to march into Opening Ceremony at 2010 Special Olympics USA National Games, with our Wyoming delegation, I was approached by Special Olympics Massachusetts athlete Anthony Marabella (pictured with me below) who wrote the following poem in honor of my mother:
My poem to Mrs. Shriver
by Anthony Marabella
There are not enough words that truly say how much you have touched my life and heart in a special way
For your helpfulness and commitment to people with disabilities throughout various communities nation and worldwide
You were the designer, the leader and the guide
Throughout everything that was done success and smiles came, along with so many friendships and the flame
We stand together here and we are proud
Our voices are heard and they are loud
With love and gratitude in all we do now do
For this we shall do for you
The one who made a dream come true
Mrs. Eunice Kennedy Shriver that person is you
Thank you for letting all dreams be achieved
Inside of everyone when they’ve believed
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Remembering Drake Turrentine
It is with great sadness that I write to share the news that our friend, colleague, and leader, Drake Turrentine, died yesterday morning, July 14, 2010. He was a wonderful human being and a blessing to our movement. Our hearts are now with his wife Joann, his children, their spouses, and his grandchildren. He will be missed terribly.
Drake Turrentine has been part of the Special Olympics movement for over 18 years beginning as outside counsel to the 1995 Special Olympics World Games Organizing Committee. Before joining our team, Drake was a partner in the Connecticut law firm of Wiggin and Dana. He was a graduate of The University of Pennsylvania and Yale Law School and a veteran of four years of service in the United States Air Force. In service to the 1995 Organizing Committee, Drake managed all the contracts, licensing, and organizational work associated with an event on the scale of a world games, pro bono. More importantly, he came to enjoy the mission, he marched in the Opening Ceremony at Yale Bowl, and he fell in love with Special Olympics. What good fortune for all of us!
In 1997, Drake and Joann moved from Connecticut to Washington and he assumed the new position of Special Olympics’ in-house General Counsel. From that vantage, he served the movement in countless ways always acting as the backbone of our fiduciary responsibilities but at the same time, helping chart the expansion of our mission around the world. The fruits of his dedication can be seen everywhere in Special Olympics. He helped shape our global and regional structure; led our World and Regional games agreements, championed the general rules and it’s revisions, created multiple models of revenue sharing with our accredited programs, oversaw streamlined accreditation systems, demanded excellence in risk management, pushed for better and better corporate partnerships, and served as Secretary to the Board of Directors.
Above all, Drake was an unfailing defender of the mission of Special Olympics—of fidelity to it, of promoting an understanding of it, of respect for its unchanging power. He saw his role not so much as a lawyer but as a champion of the movement who used the law as a tool to make a difference for our athletes, families, and communities. He worked with my mother to insure that our governing documents were clear on the centrality of the mission and he felt a deep responsibility to her to protect her vision. Over and over again, he told everyone, “Special Olympics is the best legal job in the world and I have it!” And indeed, he performed it unfailingly with dedication, smarts, and enthusiasm.
Beyond all his achievements, Drake was a man whose integrity and values made us all proud to count him as our leader. He was totally selfless, deeply trustworthy, unfailingly kind and humble. He never asked for anything for himself. He never complained. He never wanted anything other than to help our movement. How lucky we are that we were able to enjoy the work and collegiality of such a man.
Drake’s name may not be well known around the world but the sadness of this day does nothing to dim the reality that he touched the lives of millions of people for the better. He helped Special Olympics become one of the most respected sports movements in the world. He made us tough and determined. He made a difference. We have no higher praise.
Drake’s wife Joann has asked that in lieu of flowers, gifts be made in Drake’s honor and memory to Special Olympics. While that is no surprise, it is yet another humbling example of the man we knew and loved.
I hope you will join me in keeping Drake and his family in your prayers.
Tim
Friday, July 9, 2010
More Haiti Pictures
EDITOR'S NOTE: as promised in Tim's June 25 post, we wanted to get some more pictures online for you to see.
Check out the Haiti slide show on the Special Olympics website as well as a powerful slide show of pictures from Tim's daughter, Rose, who accompanied him to Haiti.
Bye for now.
Check out the Haiti slide show on the Special Olympics website as well as a powerful slide show of pictures from Tim's daughter, Rose, who accompanied him to Haiti.
Bye for now.
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