down syndrome athlete

I knew I'd be terrified rappelling down the side of a building but wasn't expecting it to pull on my heart strings. Meeting Lindsey Hawkins at the bottom of my rappel had me all teary-eyed. Her passion and enthusiasm calmed me and left me wanting to know more about her. I blogged about my Over The Edge Rappel experience last year. I shared pics of my descent and was  proud to announce that I had reached my fundraising goal. However, the story for me was far from complete. I kept thinking about Lindsey and the moment she hugged me. So, I kind of hunted her down! Please watch my video above, which includes my interview with Miss Lindsey Hawkins. She's a Special Olympics athlete who's been with the organization for 14 years. She finds immense pride in this and told me that she plays every team sport that is offered through Special Olympics of Missouri (SOMO). She describes how she feels about the 14 years she's invested in sports at SOMO as "the heart and soul of an...

Crazy that I'm just getting around to writing about this. It's been a whirlwind of a month but I'm finally back at Mizzfit headquarters blogging about all my exciting Fall adventures. Rappelling off a 20-story building is definitely one of them. I'll start here... There's an amazing event called Over The Edge that happens nationwide through the Special Olympics, and I decided to do it in St. Louis where I grew up. Even though I live in New York City, I will always be a Midwestern girl at heart. So, when the Special Olympics of Missouri asked me to work with them, I said hell yes!  Read about in my announcement post here. Oh...but wait...I'm scared of heights. Will that be a problem? Not when a team like this has your back ;) What follows are my favorite photographs from the day I conquered my fears with the Special Olympics of Missouri. In addition to raising awareness for this extraordinary event, I raised money to support it. To thank everyone who...