We have been watching the predictions of incoming severe winter weather very carefully, and we have been forced to make the difficult and disappointing, but unavoidable, decision to cancel this weekend’s State Leadership Conference.

We’re disappointed because the Leadership Conference has always been an outstanding opportunity for our program’s leaders in the state to come together to exchange ideas and build and even stronger program for our athletes in Kentucky. But it is also disappointing because we were planning so many exciting things this weekend.

The Conference was going to serve as the official kickoff of our year-long celebration of the global Special Olympics movement’s 50^th Anniversary. As part of that kickoff we were going to unveil our theme for the year – “50 Years of Hustle and Heart.” The theme was developed by Louisville athlete and Special Olympics Ambassador Josh Lear who was going to be honored during the Conference.

We were also going to announce the winners of our 2017 Special Olympics Kentucky Athlete and Coach of the Year Award winners. That will now be pushed back a few weeks to the State Basketball Tournament so as many athletes and coaches as possible can celebrate these great representatives of our program with us.

With so much planned for the Conference, cancelling was a hard thing for us to do; however, the safety of our athletes and volunteers has always been the most important priority for us and it was clear that asking so many to travel in the expected conditions would not be safe.

The next several weeks of our calendar include State Winter Games, cheerleading competitions, basketball tournaments and Polar Plunges, which then lead into preparations for Summer Games, USA Games and more. With a year as crowded as ours is, it just was not possible to reschedule the event.

We will be offering full refunds to those had paid to attend the Conference. You should see those checks soon.

While the State Leadership Conference is usually scheduled every two years, it is our plan to schedule a Leadership Conference for Jan. 18-19, 2019. We hope that you will mark your calendars and plan to join us then.

If you have any questions about the State Leadership Conference or about the cancellation, please contact Kim Satterwhite at 502-695-8222 or [email protected].