Year-Round Partners

Texas Roadhouse combines casual family dining and a Southwest roadhouse atmosphere. From homemade rolls to fresh, hand-selected all-American aged beef, Texas Roadhouse uses the freshest ingredients available to produce its outstanding menu items. Based in Louisville, Texas Roadhouse has restaurants in 20 states, including seven locations in Kentucky. Texas Roadhouse began its corporate association with Special Olympics in 2000 with the Inaugural Armadillo Classic Golf Outing. That first event raised more than $50,000 dollars to benefit athletes in Kentucky with mental disabilities. Now, Texas Roadhouse contributes more than $100,000 to Special Olympics Kentucky annually through the Armadillo Classic, icon sales in restaurants and sponsorship of the Polar Bear Plunge in Lexington.

Toyota Motor Corporation became Special Olympics Kentucky Year-Round Partner in 2019, focusing on our Unified Sports programs. In addition to supporting Unified Sports throughout the state, Toyota – through its plant in Georgetown – is also participating in Unified events with our athletes each year, including bowling events, cornhole tournaments and the SOKY Unified Step Challenge.

Corporate Sponsors

Beginning in 2013, Bachman Subaru in Louisville chose to include Special Olympics Kentucky as a local charity option in the annual Subaru Share the Love Event fundraising promotion that the company runs nationwide during the Holiday season. The program allows everyone who purchases a new Subaru between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day to designate $250 of their purchase to one of the participating charities. In the first eight years that Bachman included SOKY in the Share the Love Event, the program raised more than $220,000 for Special Olympics.

Delta Dental Plans Association is a not-for-profit organization with some for-profit affiliates as member companies. Through their 39 independent member companies, they offer national dental coverage – administering programs and reporting systems that provide employees and individuals with quality, cost-effective dental benefits and superior customer service. Delta Dental reaffirmed its commitment to improving dental health among all people when it signed on as a sponsor for Special Olympics Kentucky’s Special Smiles Healthy Athletes Initiative beginning in 2011.

As America’s largest and most trusted dental benefits carrier, Delta Dental covers more Americans than any other dental benefits provider – and strives daily to make dental coverage more accessible and affordable to a wide variety of employers, groups and individuals.

Kentucky’s Touchstone Energy Cooperatives began their association with Special Olympics Kentucky in 2013 when the became the Platinum Sponsor of out State Summer Games. The sponsorship made them the largest single sponsor of the State Summer Games in more than a decade.

Beyond simply sponsoring the Games, Touchstone has become an integral part of the weekend’s events. Touchstone Energy team members volunteer to operate the awards area at the track and field venue and the company passes out items to athletes in Olympic Town. They also now serve as the official hydration sponsor of Special Olympics Kentucky, donating hundreds of cases of bottled water to the program each year.

PNC Bank, National Association, is a member of The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE: PNC). PNC (www.pnc.com) is one of the nation’s largest diversified financial services organizations providing retail and business banking; residential mortgage banking; specialized services for corporations and government entities, including corporate banking, real estate finance and asset-based lending; wealth management and asset management. PNC Bank is a longtime supporter of Special Olympics Kentucky. Currently PNC serves as the primary sponsor of the Special Olympics Kentucky Young Athletes Program. PNC’s contribution helps provide Young Athletes Program materials for groups willing to provide programming in their area for children from 2- to 7-years old with intellectual disabilities.

BrightSpring Health Services (the new name for Kentucky-based ResCare) has served as the presenting Sponsor of the UPS Plane Pull in Louisville for many years. In addition to its sponsorship, BrightSpring has entered multiple teams in the past. Sponsorship is not BrightSpring’s only connection to Special Olympics Kentucky, as the company has provided Special Olympics programs for their clients and the other individuals they serve.

BrightSpring Health Services is one of the largest providers of diversified home and community-based health services to complex, high-cost populations. The company provides nonclinical habilitative services and clinical rehabilitative services for people of all ages and skill levels. Its primary businesses include: behavioral health (including autism services), home health care (including personal care, home health, and hospice), neuro therapy, and job placement and vocational training, supported by pharmacy and telecare ancillary technologies and services. These businesses employ more than 45,000 dedicated team members in more than 40 states and provide services to more than 2 million people annually.

Founded and headquartered in Louisville, the company has been making a difference in people’s lives and communities since 1974 – providing home and community-based health services to complex populations and helping people live their best life.

Through corporate sponsorship, its foundation and employee involvement, UPS has supported Special Olympics Kentucky for nearly two decades. UPS has been an integral part of our UPS Plane Pull and Big Brown Truck Pull events, providing planes and trucks to be pulled and entering fundraising teams. Their foundation and sponsorship contributions have supported programs as varied as our State Basketball Tournament, Healthy Athletes Initiatives and Unified Champion Schools programs.

UPS (NYSE: UPS) is a global leader in logistics, offering a broad range of solutions including transporting packages and freight; facilitating international trade, and deploying advanced technology to more efficiently manage the world of business. Headquartered in Atlanta, UPS serves more than 220 countries and territories worldwide.

Civic Organization Partners

For more than 30 years, the Law Enforcement agencies of Kentucky have banded together for this event and have raised funds to help benefit the more than 11,300 athletes whom we serve as an organization. The Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics Kentucky annually generates more than $50,000 for Special Olympics Kentucky. The Torch Run involves more than 1,500 people on a yearly basis and the participants serve as a volunteer base for the Summer Games. The Law Enforcement Torch Run for benefit Special Olympics Kentucky is the largest single grassroots fundraiser done on a yearly basis. Police organizations throughout the state raise money through a number of methods, including golf outings, trivia nights, T-shirt sales and tip-a-cops among others. Participants are honored at the Summer Games as they escort the “Flame of Hope” into the stadium for the lighting of the ceremonial flame.

The Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics Kentucky is sponsored by the State Fraternal Order of Police, Kentucky Sheriffs Association and the Kentucky Association of Chiefs of Police.

For more information about Torch Run events, please contact Special Olympics Kentucky Torch Run Liaison Steve McGill at 800-633-7403 for more information.

Civitan has been a consistent supporter of Special Olympics in Kentucky raising money through a number of programs. Civitan contributes more than $25,000 annually to Special Olympics Kentucky. Civitan also provides volunteer support for a number of Special Olympics Kentucky competitions and fundraising events.

Civitan was founded in 1917 in Birmingham, Alabama, by a group of businessmen wishing to make their community better. From there, Civitan has grown into an international organization of men, women, and teenagers in 21 countries around the world.

The mission of Civitan is to build good citizenship by providing a volunteer organization of clubs dedicated to serving individual and community needs with an emphasis on helping people with developmental disabilities.

The Kentucky Colonels are a longtime supporter of Special Olympics through their Colonels Care grant program. Through their more than two decades of support, the Colonels have helped provide funding for competitor medals, technology needs and health services for our organization.

The commission of Kentucky Colonel is the highest title of honor bestowed by the Governor of Kentucky. It is recognition of an individual’s noteworthy accomplishments and outstanding service to our community, state and nation.

Kentucky Colonels are unwavering in devotion to faith, family, commonwealth and country. Passionate about being compassionate. Proud leaders who are gentle but strong in will and commitment. The generosity of our members enables the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels – as a recognized 501 (c) (3) tax exempt non-profit organization – to reach out and care for our children, support those in need and preserve our rich heritage.

The Knights of Columbus support Special Olympics Kentucky programs on both a statewide level and in local communities throughout the state. From volunteering at competitions, to participating in events like the Plane and Truck Pulls to making donations through their Council Tootsie Roll sales programs the Knights help ensure that Special Olympics opportunities continue to be available to the athletes we serve.

The Knights of Columbus is the world’s foremost Catholic fraternal benefit society. The Order has helped families obtain economic security and stability through its life insurance, annuity and long-term care programs, and has contributed time and energy worldwide to service in communities.

The Knights of Columbus has grown from several members in one council to more than 14,000 councils and 1.8 million members throughout the United States, Canada, the Philippines, Mexico, Poland, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Panama, the Bahamas, the Virgin Islands, Cuba, Guatemala, Guam and Saipan. Currently there are more than 80 Knights of Columbus Councils with more than 10,000 members in Kentucky.

The WHAS Crusade for Children has supported Special Olympics athletes and programs for more than 30 years. Over that time, the Crusade has helped fund our Young Athletes Program, school outreach programs that were the precursor to our Unified Champion Schools Initiative and most recently our Healthy Athletes Initiative and MedFest events.

The WHAS Crusade for Children, Inc. established in 1954 by WHAS-TV, raises money for agencies, schools and hospitals to better the lives of special needs children.