Sunday, July 6, 2008

Special Olympics Always a “Special Weekend”

With the 2008 Bejing Olympics just weeks away, many people don’t realize that every June the Special Olympics are held at Cal State-Long Beach. For the 6th year, it was my privilege to serve asDirector of Fit Feet, which features volunteer doctors who offer free foot treatment and shoe analysis to the hundreds of dedicated athletes. More than 76,000 health professionals and health professions students, inall categories, have volunteered at Healthy Athletes events from 1997-2007. Special Olympics has conducted screenings for more than 689,000 athletes at more than 3,000 events during that time. My involvement with thiswonderful organization has provided me with some of the most emotionally gratifying times of my medical career.