We want participants of all abilities to feel welcomed and have opportunities to make connections while you’re here. Our ways to encourage connections include:

Greeting Stickers – Stickers are provided for you to share your greeting preference. We borrowed this idea from elementary school’s social emotional training programs. Greeting others in their preferred method helps create connections, gives a sense of belonging and provides a comfortable environment, it’s a great conversation starter too.

All Abilities Decathalon Event – This event has been designed to provide a safe, fun, competitive environment for our friends of all abilities who prefer games over walking and running. Guides/coaches are assigned to each station and will assist as needed to ensure each person is successful in their own right. Bodies will be in motion and points are earned and accumulated for friendly competition.

Sensory Tents – KSF has set up sensory tents as a safe place for our friends who are feeling overwhelmed due to heat, crowd, & music and need a place to reset mood and reduce stress. Each tent has three sides to reduce sensory input, a fan (if needed), a rug (if needed), places to sit, sunglasses, ear plugs, cool water and fidget toys to make our friends and their caregivers as comfortable as possible.

Additional event accommodations: For our friends whose abilities are best served by starting on pavement versus grass, a KSF team member will pass their bib over the start and finish line to provide the most accurate time keeping and provide an equitable environment for competition. Visual schedules have been created and are posted to make processing easier for visual learners.

Parking – KSF encourages participants to park as far away from the entry point as is comfortable for you for two (2) reasons: 1) it helps you get some extra steps in to warm up and 2) it creates additional parking spaces closest to the entry point for our friends who benefit from proximity due to sensory issues, physical attributes, medical concerns/conditions that impact the level of effort required to get from their vehicles to the starting point.

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All proceeds from this event support the programs of the KennedyStrong Foundation, a 501(c)(3) whose mission is to help people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.