Students from Haddonfield Memorial and Audubon high school’s Unified Sports teams after a pillow polo event at the latter on May 28.
The Haddonfield school district is home to a diverse community of students with a wide range of backgrounds, skills and abilities.
In order to further foster that diversity and create a more expansive sense of inclusion – particularly for those with disabilities – the school participates in a number of events and hosts programs that center around acceptance.
One of the programs that fulfills those goals is Haddonfield Memorial High School’s Unified Bowling Team. It’s a group that is part of the New Jersey Special Olympics Unified Sports initiative, which puts both people with disabilities and those without on the same teams to promote greater understanding and stronger friendships.
Colleen Carroll, occupational therapist for the district, first suggested bringing Unified Sports to Haddonfield after meeting the person in charge of the program in Philadelphia while she was an adjunct professor at Temple University. After that, Carroll was put in touch with the individuals in charge of the New Jersey Special Olympics, then had to complete a grant that would fund starting the Unified Bowling Team.
“That’s how it all started,” Carrroll recalled, “and it’s just getting bigger, and we’re having more events. We’re just gonna keep growing it.”
Students with disabilities who are on Unified Sports teams are referred to as athletes; those without are known as partners. Part of the initiative involves partnering with other schools that host similar programs. Audubon High School hosted Haddonfield Memorial High for two events, a game of pillow polo on May 28 – moved indoors because of rain – and the former’s fifth annual Walk for Acceptance on June 1.
Audubon was originally supposed to host a kickball game. Pillow polo is a modified version of ice hockey that uses sticks with foam heads and a foam ball.
Madison Brzozowski is the special education teacher at Haddofield Memorial.
“We’ve been going back and forth with seeing each other this year,” she said, “building connections between the partners and the athletes.”
When Audubon High asked Haddonfield Memorial to participate in its Walk for Acceptance, the Unified Sports team canvassed the borough’s downtown to find sponsors for its benefit and for the Special Olympics. The community at Audubon High came out to support the pillow polo event, and a number of families and community members from both towns participated in the Walk for Acceptance.
“The turnout was more than expected,” Brzozowski noted. “We had so many students from Haddonfield show up … so many students from Audubon and families. And it was a great moment seeing everybody come together.”
Haddonfield’s Unified Bowling Team hopes to hold future events at the high school, and Carroll also wants to expand the program to other schools.
“My goal is to do this in the middle school and in the elementary schools as we get a little bit more comfortable with running the program here to have it district-wide,” she explained.
Both Carroll and Brzozowski believe all of the students involved in the sporting events saw benefits from their participation, most notably connections formed with those around them.
“Our students want to make connections just like everyone else,” Brzozowski pointed out, “and we’ve seen true friendships form … Even collaborating with Audubon, the kids are still in communication with each other, and it’s been great to see those friendships blossom. And that’s what we hope to see in the future.”
Along with fostering friendships and creating an inclusive and accepting environment within the school community, the Unified Bowling Team also offers a more expansive view of what living with disabilities looks like.
