Summit to be Held in Austria in Conjunction with World Winter Games

Lindsey Wagner and Tori Cobb, both of Murray, have been chosen to participate in the Special Olympics Global Social Impact Summit that will be held March 15-20 in conjunction with the Special Olympics World Winter Games in Austria.

The pair’s project proposal was 1 of 27 selected from 60 submissions across 27 counties worldwide to participate at the summit and be provided a $2500 grant to fund their project. Their proposed project recognizes the obstacles people with disabilities face in trying to lead healthy lifestyles and seeks to provide a healthy lifestyles workshop that promotes healthy eating, emotional and physical health and fitness classes for people with disabilities.

Cobb is a Special Olympics Kentucky athlete who has past experience with events like the Social Impact Summit. She was one of Kentucky’s representatives to the 2014 National Youth Summit that was held in conjunction with the 2014 Special Olympics USA Games. A graduate of Murray High School, Cobb was a state youth leader for Special Olympics Kentucky and helped establish her school’s Youth Activation Committee.

Wagner, a student at Calloway County High School, is president of her school’s Youth Activation Committee which she helped to form a year ago. She has served as a Special Olympics basketball coach and currently serves on the Special Olympics Kentucky State Youth Activation Committee.

The Social Impact Summit is part of the Special Olympics global youth initiative. In Kentucky the largest component of that initiative is the Unified Champion Schools Program. Unified Champion Schools seeks to help schools build stronger school communities that are more inclusive of students with disabilities through a program that includes Unified sports, whole school engagement activities and youth leadership. The Youth Activation Committees on which Cobb and Wagner have worked are part of the youth leadership component of the program. For more information about the Unified Champion Schools program or how to get your school involved, contact Justin Harville, Director of Volunteer & Program Services at 502-695-8222 or [email protected].