A Very Special Virtual Cache
To get credit for this virtual cache (there in NO container) all you need to do is...
1st. Go to the listed coordinates and locate the commemorative sign.
2nd. While standing in front of the sign tell me how many screws are on the right vertical board that makeup the frame around the sign and email us the number of those screws just on the front of the sign right side, or post a picture in front of the sign.
3rd. Optional step, take a picture of you with the sign, if you do this step you dont have to answer the questions.
So why is this Virtual cache so special? Well for starters we feel very special to have been selected among the 4000 cachers to be entrusted to make this Virtual Cache more info about that below or here. But more importantly the real reason that this cache is so special is the special history that started right here in Okaloosa County and more specifically in Fort Walton Beach. But more importantly this year (2018) marks the 50th anniversary of the Special Olympics. And what an amazing thing!
Eunice Kennedy
In the early 1960s, Eunice Kennedy Shriver invited young people with intellectual disabilities to explore their skills and abilities in a variety of sports and physical activities. This revolutionary idea would spark a global movement. Soon, Eunice Kennedy Shriver's vision began to take shape. She held a summer day camp for young people with intellectual disabilities in her own backyard. The goal was to learn what these children could do in sports and other activities – and not dwell on what they could not do.
Throughout the 1960s, Eunice Kennedy Shriver continued her pioneering work. She was the driving force behind President John F. Kennedy's White House panel on people with ID. She directed the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation. Her vision and drive for justice grew into the Special Olympics movement. On the stage in the picture above Eunice stated what is still the oath of the Special Olympics today. Here's a short video link of that event.
"Let me win,
but if I cannot win
let me be brave
in the attempt."
The first Special Olympics games were held in July 1968 at Soldier Field in Chicago. About 1,000 athletes from the U.S. and Canada took part in the one-day event, which was a joint venture by the Kennedy Foundation and the Chicago Park District
Around the same time on Oct 12th 1967 here in our very own Okaloosa County and more specifically Fort Walton Beach Florida. A new Principal Mr. Wayne McSheehy at Silver Sands School, a school for special needs individuals with the aid Becky Sears and the Hurlburt Field Wives Club were already doing a very similar thing by having "Game Days" for his students. As an amazing Athlete and later a World Champion Triathlete he understood the importance and benefit of sports and team building. He later caught word of Kennedy's new Special Olympics and decided to take on the task of establishing the first Special Olympics here in Florida and more specifically Fort Walton Beach. That first Florida Special Olympics took place at the Choctawhatchee Stadium and was a huge success and the start to something that would span through the next 50 years.
So, why is this so important to the BISHOPCREW? Well it hits very close to home, my youngest brother has down syndrome and has participated in the Special Olympics himself. If it wasn't for great people like Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Wayne McSheehy, Becky Sears, the Hurlburt Wives club, and Thousands and Thousands of other volunteers some amazingly special people wouldn't have had the opportunity that my brother had to compete and be part of such an ongoing and awesome opportunity.
Virtual Reward - 2017/2018
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between August 24, 2017 and August 24, 2018. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards on the Geocaching Blog.