HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) — It’s a high-quality problem but still a problem: The Special Olympics “area games” here have gotten so big that the event doesn’t fit a lot of places. And sure enough, it won’t happen in 2024.
“It’s hard,” said Stefanie Thebes, whose 11-year-old son Emmett won first-place ribbons in all his events last year. “It’s really sad.”
Stephanie Reisinger, a volunteer leader of the event for what the organization calls “Area M” — south-central Pennsylvania — agrees.
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“It feels very, very disappointing,” Reisinger said.
The event, which has been running for decades, started at East Pennsboro High School. When it no longer fit there, it moved to Messiah University. Then came COVID-19 — no games for a few years — and when it was time to “reboot,” as Reisinger put it, Messiah said it could no longer host the games. Susquenita Area School District hosted a smaller-than-usual version of the event in May 2023.
Reisinger and the school district’s athletic director, William Quigley, both said the full-size event — 80 school buses from other districts and nearly 5,000 people, between athletes, parents, and volunteers — just doesn’t fit there.