We’re excited that the much-anticipated Special Olympics Missouri Training for Life Campus is coming to fruition — bringing unprecedented opportunities for Special Olympians.
We reported about last Thursday’s ribbon-cutting at the campus, a 32,000-square-foot structure that houses health and wellness, fitness, sports skills development, and sports leadership training centers. It also contains offices for Special Olympics Missouri and for Special Olympics Missouri-Central Region.
The campus is an architectural achievement that features glass, steel and stone. Inside, glass doors and walls greet those who enter the large atrium. The inspirational design, with plenty of natural light inside, compliments an array of functional offerings on the inside.
Olympians have long enjoyed state-of-the-art training facilities that offer everything from training space and equipment to medical and hearing exam rooms to nutrition and fitness education. Now, Special Olympians throughout the Show-Me State can enjoy these offerings right here in Jefferson City.
The Training for Life Campus is a team effort. City leaders convinced SOMO to base the one-of-a-kind center in our city, and many people in Jefferson City stepped up to help with funding.
Paving stones outside the entrance in the center of the building, both in the front and rear, are inscribed with donors’ names or messages and names of Special Olympians who raised $5,000 or more. Also, the Cole County Sheriff’s Posse Association recently raised $1,000 benefiting the Special Olympics Missouri Training for Life campus. Those are just a couple examples.
We’re proud to be the Missouri city that will train Special Olympians throughout the state, and we look forward to next weekend, when 1,100 Special Olympians will converge on Jefferson City to participate in a variety of sports, including some at the new campus.
We welcome the athletes and their families, and look forward to seeing the new training center put the use.
News Tribune