December 11, 2024

Events / Activities / Updates

Santa's Cottage - Fun Night

• This Friday, December 13, 2024 Evening
• At the Moose Lodge in Swansea
• Join us for dinner, dancing, Sant's cottage and a special guest!  (hint, its not the Easter Bunny)
• Register to attend HERE!
• No cost for paid WLTG Members - $5 for Non-members

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New Baden Lighted Christmas Parade! - (Updates will be posted to Facebook Page)
Region J is planning to participate in the New Baden Lighted Christmas Parade on Sunday December 15 and they are inviting our members to join us. I know this is a busy time of year for everyone, but if you would like to take part, you are more than welcome to join the fun.

They are planning to use Steve’s (Region J) truck and pull the Special Olympics trailer. They are planning to decorate in Special Olympics and Christmas décor. We strongly consider wearing your Without Limits - Team Galaxy or holiday festive wear along with your medals if you plan on attending.  SO Cheerleaders can wear their SO Cheer Warm up with pom-poms and So Cheer Bow. 

• Date:  December 17, 2024 at 5PM
• Route:  East Hanover Street beginning at South Railway Street to the New Baden Park
• Line up:  At 4PM (location to be posted on Facebook)
• Parade will end at the New Baden Village Park where there will be food trucks, heaters, and Santa set up for photographs.

2025 Event Dates & Deadlines - Special Olympics of Illinois
Planning your 2025 vacation?  Curious when a event or sport will be in 2025?  Check out this new page that has all the dates and times at this moment.  Always confirm with the coach or organizer of an event as times and locations may change. 
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Medical-Fest Opportunity
We are looking for doctors and nurses that could legally sign our medical applications.
We are looking at using the Mascoutah Leu Civic Center and have athletes come in and do an annual medical application.
This way we can as an organization stay on top of the medical application process.

• Looking to get it organized for December
• If you are interested or know someone that could help, please email [email protected]

Follow us now on LinkedIn
We are expanding our professional communication reach now through LinkedIn.  If you have a LinkedIn profile, please follow us and spread our network!  Without Limits - Team Galaxy LinkedIn Page.

Spirit Wear
Below is a link to our spirit wear fundraiser for Without Limits-Team Galaxy sports teams https://warriorlogowear.com/team_galaxy/shop
Please check it out and feel free to place your order! To order, all you must do is open an account and place your order.  
Thank you so much for supporting Without Limits-Team Galaxy!!

Giving Tuesday (Continues)
GivingTuesday started as a day for anyone, anywhere to give, and it's grown into the biggest giving movement in the world.
Celebrated each year on the Tuesday following U.S. Thanksgiving, and fueled by the power of social media, GivingTuesday inspires millions of people across the globe to show up and give back to causes and issues that matter to them. The goal is to create a massive wave of generosity that lasts well beyond that day, and touches every person on the planet. We would love your support!
https://square.link/u/RnFENIQH

2025 Polar Plunge
It's Freezing for a Reason Season!! That's right its time to sign up for the 2025 Polar Plunge. Grab your plunge team and head out to one of our local Plunge sites. All you have to do is click the link below to get started.  Register for either the Collinsville Dumpster plunge on 2/28/25 or Carlyle Lake on 2/22/24. Let's make the 2025 Polar Plunge season one for the books. Register to plunge, join a team, and start fundraising today. Happy Plunge Season!!
https://plungeillinois.com/  --  Happy Shopping! https://willpromo.com/soill_plunge/shop/home

Center of Excellence - New Online Portal for Volunteering
Easy volunteer registration.  Better communications.  Portal Link
The Center of Excellence is a simple and straightforward online portal for Special Olympics Illinois volunteers to get registered quickly, efficiently, and easily communicate in real time.  If you are a volunteer or would like to be one, set up a new profile to continue making an impact.  

Dance / Cheer / Gymnastics

Dance Schedule UPDATES:

Wednesday Schedules

• Rhythmic Gymnastics @ 5:30 (please reach out if interested in this) - THIS HAS NOT STARTED YET. WE WILL UPDATE WHEN IT BEGINS! Mari Seper has more info
• Nationals practices - See post on the FB page an update about this. These will move to either Thursday evening or Saturday. They are POSTPONED until January for the time being.
• Nutcracker will be on an individual basis. Kati will reach out to you directly for practice days/times

Thursday Schedules

• 5-5:30 Elementary (ages 4-7)
• 5:30 - 6:15 Jazz/Tap/Hip Hop Ballet BOYS 11+ (an email reminder of what genre for the week will be sent)
• 6:20 - 7:05 Jazz/Tap/Hip Hop/Ballet GIRLS 8+
• Competition team & Nationals team will resume in JANUARY

Rhythmic Gymnastics

• Begins November 20th at 5:30 PM at Stars R Us
• It will be held at Without Limits room
• Please register by emailing Mari at [email protected]

Artistic Gymnastics

• Begins in January 2025 on Sundays 9 to 10 AM at Gateway Elite Gymnastics
• Lisa Elbe will be coaching

Sports & Athletics

Congrats WLTG Bowling Team!  
Congratulations to our Without Limits Bowling Team at State!!! We brought home many medals and awards!!!We are SO proud of all of you!!! It was an amazing bowling season!! Thank you Special Olympics Illinois for a wonderful event and Bel-Air Bowl for all you do for our team!!!
Results:

• Addison -Gold
• Tyler - Gold
• Jordan - Silver
• Brandy - Silver
• Ava - Bronze
• Kennedy - Bronze
• Fletcher - Bronze
• Kayley - Bronze
• Jr. - Bronze
• Owen - 4th place
• Bailey - 4th place
  

Basketball

• Basketball practice this week will be at Pathway at 6 PM
• We will return to Leu Civic Center after on December 18th
• A tournament in December to assist in getting divisions for the regional tournament
• There will also be a tournament in Springfield. I have talked to several teams in St. Louis
• Mascoutah High School is looking at doing a camp with our teams
• First tournament will be on December 15, 2024 at Chatham Chargers Annual Basketball Game Day
• Second tournament will be in Oakaville on 5 January 2025. Start time is 8:00
• Regionals is February 5, 2025 in Trenton
• State is March 7th through 9th 2025
• Without Limits-Team Galaxy is looking for more basketball coaches.

Practice Schedule

• Tuesday:  6PM Girls Team  / 7PM Superstars
• Thursday: 6PM Skills / 7PM Shooting Starts

Chatham Basketball Tournament - December 15, 2024
Game Times:

• Girls play at 12:00 & 12:45
• Superstars: 9:45 & 12:00
• Shooting Stars: 9:45 & 11:15

Snow Shoe

• Next practice will be on Saturday, December 14 at Scheve Park
• Regionals are on January 4th at Rend Lake
• Winter Games will be on February 11 - 13, 2025 in Galena

Sharks Swimming Team - 2025 
Some early information as our season will start in a couple months:

• First practice for both the Developmental and Competitive groups will be Sunday,  January 26th.  
• Practices will be held at the CMT YMCA on Sundays starting next month
• Practices will run from January to May every Sunday at the times below.  
• Development group will have the pool from 3PM to 4PM
• Competitive group will have the pool from 4PM to 5PM

Please visit this form so we can be prepared for our seasont shortly

Interested in Bags?  Cornhole? Kickball?  Handball?
WLTG is looking to find out what the interest is in Cornhole (bags), kickball and handball.
Cornhole is a Unified and traditional sport.

• Handball is a sport like soccer and basketball. A demonstration will be done to show the game.
• We are trying to find out if parents or athletes would be interested in Unified soccer. It would have its own season during the summer.
• State for Unified soccer is in September 2015

. Any additions for dance /
Young Athletes - Coach Needed
We are looking for a second coach for our Young Athletes program.
Special Olympics Young Athletes is an early childhood play program for children with and without intellectual disabilities, ages 2 to 7 years old. Young Athletes introduces basic sport skills, like running, kicking and throwing. Young Athletes offers families, teachers, caregivers and people from the community the chance to share the joy of sports with all children.
Please reach out to us and join the team!