Project Unity members, volunteers, and participants gathered at the football field to play bocce ball. The volunteers and participants were from elementary, middle, and high schools, which led to a wonderful group and An opportunity to make new friends.

Project Unity is a club within PHS that aims to eliminate the stigma associated with special education classes. It has been in the works for a while, but it has really come together in the past two years.

“I just love seeing the relationships that it fosters amongst all of our students,” physical education teacher Mrs. Charli Fluty said. “Because you want your younger kids to look up to your high school kids, right? And you want that kind of tradition to continue…like this is what it means to be a real Panther. This is what it means to be a PHS student. And we want..as mentors to really illustrate those characteristics… to work directly with those kids and show them, hey, this is what it means to be at Powell High School.”

Events like the bocce ball tournament can be nerve-racking for participants and volunteers.

“I was sort of scared going into it at first,” senior Paul Cox said. “I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to connect with them or communicate with them, or that they would be too different from me. I found out pretty quickly that that wasn’t true; in fact, they were actually very similar, and they were very easy to talk to, and they were just like any other kids.”

Project Unity members explained how to play to everyone, which helped to break the ice and make the environment more comfortable.

“It’s okay if you get nervous, but you have to breathe in and breathe out and wiggle about,” senior Maddie Tyrney said. “That’s why we follow the rules about the little ball and the big ball.”

Along with learning how to play bocce ball, volunteers gained skills to help them bond with their fellow students.

“I learned how important it is to do a lot more encouraging– you know, cheer for them more,” freshman Daniel Easum said. “I just tried to cheer for them as much as possible. I liked calling them the LeBrons of bocce ball and the greatest of all time.”

Although the aim of these activities is not directed at winning, some still love the competition involved.

“My favorite part is just hitting the ball,” freshman Alex Bradshaw said. “I made a lot of points,  I’m getting good at making points.”

Some of the participants have won awards from competing in Special Olympics events.

 “I made fourth in bowling,” said senior Maggie Spiering.

The first activity open for students to volunteer at was bowling allowing for some fantastic bowling practice. A future event planned for Project Unity is a rock climbing event.

“I’ll tell you what I was playing with a bowling ball, and I hit all the pins,” Tyrney said. “I won the gold medal.”

The growth within students and volunteers is a highlight of the event; it’s a learning experience for everyone involved.

“I think that for my kids in my classroom, it gives them more connection to the school,” life skills teacher Mrs. Shelby Moore said. “Sometimes they spend a lot of time in my room with just their peers and don’t spend as much time out in gen ed, and when they do, they’re usually in more of an extracurricular type class, so they’re going to be in like PE or foods, and so they don’t develop the same  relationships, And so getting to do an activity paired up with one of the volunteers gave them a lot more one on one time to develop a relationship.”

As future opportunities arise, Project Unity has hopes to involve more students to help foster more bonds between the special education students and the general education students. Mrs. Moore has just one expectation for volunteers. 

“Just a volunteer that doesn’t take themselves too seriously,” Mrs. Moore said. “I think the willingness to be goofy and have fun and just be all in is really one of the most important things And just a willingness to connect with anybody, and that recognition that a student is just a student, and if you want to have fun with them, you’re gonna have fun with them.”