GULF SHORES — After training for three months, Lela Booth participated in athletic events and sang the national anthem at the fifth-annual Island Special Olympics among 47 other students from …
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GULF SHORES — After training for three months, Lela Booth participated in athletic events and sang the national anthem at the fifth-annual Island Special Olympics among 47 other students from Gulf Shores and Orange Beach schools.
Booth, an 11th-grader at Gulf Shores High School (GSHS), has sung the national anthem "a billion times" before for events such as the Island Special Olympics and GSHS football games.
"Well, I just sing it from my heart," Booth said on her secret to how she sings the national anthem.
As a member of the high school choir team, she loves singing as a fun hobby for now.
Another hobby for Booth, who is visually impaired, is running, which is her favorite part of the Island Special Olympics.
"I'm going to run like a cheetah," Booth said enthusiastically before she took off down the track.
She participated in the 100-yard dash and was excited to win third place.
Other activities at the Island Special Olympics included events like the long jump, softball throw, shotput and javelin throw.
Sonya Price, director of Gulf Shores City Schools Department of Exceptional Education, said several of these activities have different categories for different age groups and different needs.
"Some people do like a 50-yard dash, some people do a 100- or 200-, some people have an assisted walk, or some people are in a wheelchair," Price explained.
Pair an aspiration to work in a veterinarian office with a pet snake and four dogs at home and you have Booth, who is well prepared to take on the responsibility of her class's pets. She helps take care of her class's pet fish and the new baby chickens the students hatched from an incubator about a month ago. Her teacher, Misty Balster, said they are working on getting Booth a summer internship at Sea Paws Dog Resort, where she can help take care of dogs.
Price has worked with hatching ducks in the elementary school, and some ducks receive permission to be released in subdivisions and areas with ponds.
"It helps the environment. We're very in touch with our ecosystem around here," Price said. "… What we found was that the more kids are engaged with outside and doing things with the environment, the more they care about taking care of the environment."
Another benefit of animal interaction, Price mentioned, is how much they improve classroom communication. One student who "has been nonverbal his entire life" has started having full conversations with Balster after first talking with the fish and chickens.
"He tells them good morning, and he talks to them every day," Balster said, "and then he's just kind of having more experiences outside of the classroom. We try to do a lot that's not just in our room."
A few of Balster's students are in school programs like ROTC, including Booth and some of her friends. Balster said having her students in programs like this "kind of gets rid of that stigma" between the Exceptional Students and others at the school.
"It just kind of creates a lot of friendships that you really wouldn't have seen otherwise," Balster said. "The more that they're out doing things with other students, it really does create (more friendships)."
The Gulf Shores High and Middle School track team and ROTC volunteered at the Island Special Olympic event to assist students and staff as needed. The engineering class 3D printed the Olympic torch for the event.
"What? Stop the presses," Booth said excitedly. "That's crazy."
The Gulf Shores agriculture class helped by building ramps for the Island Special Olympics stage using their woodworking shop.
National Special Olympics was "started by the Kennedys" Price said.
The National Special Olympics official website's history page states the event was first held in 1968 after Eunice Kennedy Shriver had been working for a few years on an "innovative summer camp for young people with intellectual disabilities."
"This was a revolutionary idea at the time," the website reads.
Price explained how Gulf Shores City Schools started working on holding a Special Olympics after they broke away from the county school system in 2018, with the first year of holding their own being in the spring of 2021.
Orange Beach City Schools joined, making it the Island Special Olympics, when they split from the county schools, with their first year of participation in 2023.
With the two schools now participating together, they plan to switch between each city's sportsplex. Last year, it was held at Orange Beach. This year, it was in Gulf Shores.
The Baldwin County Public Schools Special Olympics will be held April 4 this year in Fairhope.
"Regardless of whatever school you're in, the message is still the same in Special Olympics," Balster said. "Kids still feel the same excitement. They always are just so excited."
Price said, "it's the best feel-good event you'll ever attend."
Something Booth is looking forward to later this semester is going to prom with her best friend, Gina, who also participated in the Special Olympics. The two plan to make it a "girls' night."
