Immokalee High School senior Hunter Dimas said his pledge started when he witnessed the impact of the "R" word.
He was at a Special Olympics program three months ago when someone used the word “retarded” in front one of the athletes.
“The way he looked,” he said. “It just brought him really down and I really felt bad so we really tried to change it.”
On a hot Saturday morning in March, Dimas is selling t-shirts at the Special Olympics Area 9 Summer Games at Golden Gate High School in Collier County.
The t-shirts read “Spread the Word to End the Word.” It’s an international campaign asking participants to pledge to stop using the word “retarded.”
Dimas signed the pledge after he saw how the word affected the athlete.
“We just throw it around. It’s changed my view of me using it,” he said. “I signed it and I haven’t used it since.”
Kelly Stevenson-Crews helped grow the local campaign at Immokalee High School, where she works as a special education teacher.
The first big event was a basketball game in January between Golden Gate High School and Immokalee High School. Players sported “Spread the Word to End the Word” t-shirts before the game. They invited regional Special Olympic athletes to watch.
Stevenson-Crews has worked with the Special Olympics for 12 years. She says the campaign to end the "R" word promotes inclusion.
“The word is very, very hurtful and in our society now we really try and we really encourage students to include people with intellectual disabilities in the community,” she said. “And by eliminating that word shows that we want to build friendships - that everybody is the same.”
Stevenson-Crews is also a soccer coach with the Special Olympics. Her goal was to collect 2,000 pledge signatures by the end of the day’s games.
At the long jump, 15-year-old Steven Newell is completing the first of three attempts.
His mother Becky Newell is part of the management team for Special Olympics in Collier County.
Newell said she hasn’t spoken with her son about the campaign. He’s aware of it, she said. He’s been around her as she’s promoted it and asked people to sign a pledge. But, she said it’s not something he’s faced himself.
For Newell, the challenge of the campaign is asking people – at times complete strangers – not to use the "R" word.
She recalls one time she was in the checkout line at a grocery store when a little boy used the word behind her. He was with his mother and Newell didn’t say anything.
She said she’s always regretted not speaking up.
“That campaign is so important because it builds the awareness that the words that people choose to use can really have a hurtful effect,” Newell said.
Steven Newell feels he did well in the long jump at the Special Olympic Games.
“It went great,” he said.
The rest of his events for the day included a 100-meter relay and a 4x4 100-meter relay.
By the end of the games, the “Spread the Word to End the Word” campaign had exceeded its goal with more than 2,100 signatures.
The pledge can be signed here.
