NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, TX – The Lone Star Brahmas are pleased to announce a new partnership between the organization and Keller ISD’s Lone Star Elementary, in conjunction with Special Olympics Texas, to promote their endeavors as a United Champion School (UCS).
“When we get out in the community and put smiles on children’s faces, it makes you realize that the Brahmas organization is more than wins and losses on the ice,” said Vice President of the Brahmas, Chad Siewert. “Being able to work with the young leaders from Lone Star Elementary and Texas Special Olympics has been like having an extra boost of adrenaline pumped in us. At the end of the day, the memories we create in the community will last longer than those we create on the ice.”
On January 25, the UCS Leadership Council, comprised of 10 typical and five non-typical elementary students, participated in a skate with the Lone Star Brahmas team. For many of them, this was the students’ first time on the ice.
This group of leaders, advised by third-grade teacher Kelly McCormack, is in charge of planning school-wide inclusive events, promoting UCS activities on daily announcements, volunteering hours for Special Olympic fundraising efforts, meeting twice monthly, while keeping up with their school work and extra-curricular activities.
“As a nationally recognized Unified Champion School, Lone Star Elementary was gifted the opportunity to partner with the Lone Star Brahmas in order to bring even more awareness to the inclusion revolution,” said McCormack. “We look forward to expanding our relationship with school-wide events here on our campus and reaching out to the Brahmas fan base at a future game. Together we achieve more!”
A Special Olympics Unified Champion School has an inclusive school climate and exudes a sense of collaboration, engagement and respect for all members of the student body and staff.
A Unified Champion School receiving national banner recognition is one that has demonstrated commitment to inclusion by meeting 10 national standards of excellence. These standards were developed by a national panel of leaders from Special Olympics and the education community.
“As a campus, we not only strive to instill in our students this understanding, ‘no matter a students disability they can achieve great things and be a part of everything we do’, but also try to find real-world examples of people or organizations that exemplify this for our students to look up to and model their lives after,” said principal of Lone Star Elementary, Steven Hurst. “The players and the entire Brahmas organization are simply amazing examples of this!”
Lone Star Elementary School was recently recognized as a Special Olympics National Banner School, becoming the first elementary school in the state of Texas to receive this award and only the 45th in the country.
The Lone Star UCS leadership group will be hosting a fundraising event here at NYTEX to promote their program and endeavors on March 26, 2022. Tickets are available to be purchased at this link with the code “UCS”, where Lone Star UCS will secure half of all ticket sales.