The Farmingdale Athletic Complex at Howitt Middle School wasn’t built with the idea of hosting massive events, but it will get a chance to when the Special Olympics come to town in May.
The school will be hosting the Special Olympics New York Long Island Region’s Spring Games North, which will host events such as track and field, power-lifting, tennis and swimming. The idea was first brought to the table by Special Olympics officials as the new facility got their attention.
“I had reached out to Brian Norton, who is the chair of our Special Education program at the high school,” said Superintendent Paul Defendini. “He brought them in to take a tour of the facility and take a look at it. We negotiated back and forth about what could and couldn’t be done.”
The Farmingdale School District board of education and Special Olympics New York agreed to a two-year deal in the middle of 2019, and since then they’ve been working to prepare for an event that is expected to bring in more than 500 athletes across the four sports.
“Its always nice for our athletes to showcase their abilities at the highest platform,” said Tim Flynn, the organizer of the event with Special Olympics New York. “If there’s a school out there willing to host and give our athletes an opportunity, we are always willing to talk. But with Farmingdale and this complex, there’s no other place like it on Long Island, I don’t believe. Our athletes will be competing at a top quality venue.”
The school is planning to have the opening ceremony and most of the events take place at the athletic complex. While the aquatic center is still under construction at Howitt, the Farmingdale High School pool is available as a satellite venue for the competition. The school is also looking at potential locations to hold the tennis portion of the competition.
Special Olympics New York, a nonprofit organization, gives athletes in the region with intellectual and physical disabilites the opportunity to compete in a fair sporting event, providing year-round competitions for them to participate in. The Long Island Region of the organization hosts other seasonal games, including during the fall and winter, as well as Spring Games South, which will be held in Islip this year.
“You can see a wide array of athleticism that is going to be there from highly-skilled and highly-competitive athletes who can do incredible athletic feats,” said Defendini. “That athleticism gives me so much pride. We value our Special Education program in Farmingdale and we respect growth of our students at all levels. This is not only a great opportunity for us to get behind our students in that capacity, but it gives us pride in this complex that will be able to handle an event of this size.”
At the start of February, the school district began to reach out to those in the community to help take part in this event, which will be held May 17. Those interested can help in three ways, according to Defendini. First will be through volunteer effort of getting the facility ready leading up to the event and then helping clean up and getting the facility back to normal. Second, they will rely on local vendors to help establish the Olympic Village. Specifically, they will be looking for vendors to provide games and workshops for people to participate in. Third, the Special Olympics will be looking for donations to help get the event running. Defendini stressed that this is a community event, and any help will be appreciated.
“This is a massive volunteer effort,” said Defendini. “There’s nobody at the school district or anyone involved that is being paid to do anything that is going on [in this event]. We’re going to need a tremendous amount of volunteers in order to get this event off the ground. Farmingdale is a great place for that. We’re the kind of community when help is needed, help is there.”
For more information on how to get involved, visit the school’s website at www.farmingdaleschools.org. If you are eligible to participate in the games, visit www.specialolympics-ny.org to register.
