December 16, 2024

Events / Activities / Updates

Santa's Cottage - Fun Night
A big thank you for all the volunteers, helpers and of course the Moose Lodge in Swansea for the amazing Holiday Fun Night last week.  And thank you for Santa Claus for making the evening complete with his visit!

New Baden Lighted Christmas Parade - A fun night for a parade!  Thank you for those who walked with us!

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. 
​​
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!!

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

Basketball

• CONGRATULATIONS to our Basketball teams for a strong showing in Springfield at the Chatam, II Basketball Tournament this past weekend!
• Basketball practice will return to Leu Civic Center this week
• Currently trying to arrange several camps and scrimmage. (Waiting to hear back from
  Mascoutah High School). Talked to several teams in St. Louis.
• Coaches need to get in contact with Rich about playing some games in Mount Vernon on 28
  December. just let them know by tomorrow.
• 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
• Second tournament will be in Oakaville (400 S. Hanover, Oakaville, IL) on 5 January 2025. Start time is 8:00
• Regionals is February 5, 2025 in Trenton
• State is March 7th through 9th 2025

Practice Schedule

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

Snow Shoe

• Next practice will be on Saturday, December 21 at Carlyle Lake.  Meet at the O'Fallon Park and Ride at 9:30 AM.  Please remember we will be going to Dairy King in Trenton for lunch on our way back
• 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!