US Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos, has sent out her proposed budget, which includes a complete elimination of funding for the program. Roughly $18 million would be taken away and, as the Education Secretary suggested, will rely on philanthropy alone.
IT2 reached out to
Special Olympics North Dakota
President and Ceo, Kathy Meagher, to get her take on this suggested elimination and how that would directly effect the efforts in North Dakota.
Kathy mentioned that the federal funding opened up grant opportunities for things such as travel or expanding of programs and the removal of those funds will not shut down Special Olympics North Dakota, but will change the landscape of the near future. While many businesses and volunteers support the events and programs of Special Olympics, there is a certain threshold that is hard to cross in state’s like North Dakota with a lower number of residents and businesses. A lot of great programs are chasing the same dollar.
Kathy has great energy and talks about how athletes are becoming teachers who educate others on how to be better and more compassionate people. The potential loss of funding has activated the efforts of Special Olympics North. Calling your elected officials, sending emails and sharing the story on social media are effective ways to let the decision makers know you want Special Olympics funding to continue!
FOR MORE INFORMATION CHECK OUT THE SPECIAL OLYMPICS NORTH DAKOTA WEBSITE BY CLICKING HERE. 
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