Abilene teens honored for Lovin’ Compassion
Nellie Doneva/Reporter-News Sara Olvera (front left) and Kyleigh Clark (right) hang out before going out of town to see a Texas Rangers game with Amanda Butler (center), Mary Clark (back left) and special education teacher April Obosky. Olvera and Clark are the Southern Region winners of the Lovin Compassion Award, which they received for their work with intellectually disabled peers.
Sara Olvera (left) and Kyleigh Clark (right) load their luggage before going out of town to see a Texas Rangers game.
When Kyleigh Clark and Sara Olvera were placed in Mann Middle School’s Meet in the Middle program, they had no idea it would result in becoming friends, making a difference and receiving national recognition for their efforts with local intellectually disabled youth.
“We got in there because of bad behavior,” Olvera said of landing in the program, claiming she was kicked out of Spanish class. Clark was placed in Meet in the Middle after getting in trouble in her art class.
They were assigned to spend a class period each day with Meet in the Middle, a grant-funded outreach project that encourages students to bridge the gap between general and special education students.
That was at the beginning of their eighth-grade year, Olvera said. In the months following their assignment to the program, both girls grew to love the students they met and became advocates for continuing the mentoring in high school.
Last month, the 14-year-olds were named the Southern Region winners of the Lovin’ Compassion Award. The award is given by Lovin’ Scoopful, an ice cream company founded by Maria and Tim Shriver to benefit nonprofits that support individuals with intellectual challenges.
It was Project UNIFY Meet in the Middle Coordinator Martha Dorow who nominated the girls for the award. Special Olympics Project UNIFY is a project that uses sports and education programs to encourage young people to develop school communities where all youth are agents of change.
Dorow works out of the Austin office and met the girls when they traveled to Austin in May for the Youth Leadership Summit hosted by Project UNIFY.
“They have that forward-thinking mentality, they’ve demonstrated real integrity,” she said of the girls, “and they’ve been very committed in thinking about what they want to do next year in high school.”
The girls will be freshmen at Abilene High School in the fall, where they will be active in getting the new high school Meet in the Middle program up-and-running on campus.
A pivotal part of their contribution to the program, Dorow said, is their willingness to be advocates for others.
They’ve listened to the desires of their intellectually disabled peers and helped them take part in campus activities like joining ROTC or managing the football team.
“They ask, ‘how can we help them?’ and they have got really strong character,” she said.
Dorow said she never nominated a student before and is pleased that someone else recognized the students’ efforts.
The girls admitted they are a little sad to be leaving the middle school program, but looking forward to helping on the high school level.
Clark and Olvera both said they saw significant changes in the personalities of the intellectually disabled students over the last year and looks forward to seeing some of them move on to high school.
April Obosky, a special education teacher at Mann, said as much as she will miss the girls because of the contributions they made in her classroom, she is excited to see them move on.
“Watching my mentors grow and my students grow because they’re being loved on, cared about,” she said, “it’s just a really unique thing.”
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