ALEX KOTAS

On April 30, Celebrate Differences held a 5K fundraiser. I walked along with my Mom and cousin Claire. Dad and Anthony ran the race. It was a rainy day, we walked with an umbrella. I took first place in my division!!! An estimated 500 - 1,000 people were there. My family likes to support Celebrate Differences! #community #health #charity

Artful Impact, where I take theatre classes, participated in #strongerthrusong. We sang #letitgo with Kaylee Rogers. Kaylee is a 10-year-old girl from Northern Ireland with autism who has an amazing voice. Click here to listen! #strongerthrusong is a global event where people show how they are stronger thru song. We skyped with Kaylee to be able to meet her and hear about all her singing events. Later that month, we did a secondary performance of "Let It Go" at the Dupage Chi

Sheila got a volunteer job for Caitlin and I at BDI Playhouse. Yesterday was the first time we went there. We waited for this woman called Dana. She gave us a tour throughout the entire building. BDI Playhouse does physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech and other therapies. It is located behind the Target on Jefferson Ave. We will be cleaning toys and equipment. We will be working in various rooms. When we arrive, we will find out our assignment for that day. When w

On Saturday, Randy and I went to College Church in Wheaton for a Special Olympics fundraiser with musical performances. We were speaking as Global Messengers for Special Olympics. When it was time for our speech, we walked onto the stage. Randy is carrying my laptop that had our Powerpoint presentation. Our speech was about the Special Olympics sports we participate in. There were some jokes thrown in, and we got good laughs from the crowd. Sometimes we had to wait until the

Getting ready! I was getting ready for the Special Needs Prom! The theme was a masquerade / Mardi Gras party. I knew several people who were going: Caitlin, Gayle, Randy, Rachel, Erin, Gabby, Maryann, April, Zack, Stephanie. Also Cinderella and Prince Charming showed up! I walked the red carpet on the way in, much like you would see at a Hollywood premiere. I got a boutonniere. There was face painting / arm painting while they played some great songs. Why get your face painte

The Aurora Police Department invited Randy, Caitlin, Gayle, Sheila and I to "roll call" to talk about Special Olympics. Roll call is when the police officers get ready for their shift. Sheila helped us decide what to say to the police officers. We were educating the police officers about Special Olympics hoping that more officers will help out with future Special Olympics fundraisers. We have helped the Aurora Police Department with some fundraisers like: Red Robin, Culvers

The Polar Plunge is a fundraiser for Special Olympics. There are many polar plunge locations, I was at the one at Loon Lake in Yorkville. The main event of the Polar Plunge is to actually go into a lake in the winter!!! Before taking the plunge, we had to register and we looked for officers from the Aurora Police Department. Despite having foot surgery, officer Lisa decided to show up and support Special Olympics. I saw some friends there. They had lunch, pulled pork sandwi

Pokemon Go is a game a recently started playing. It's a realistic game, you take your iphone or ipad on the go with you and you collect various types of Pokemon. They can be anywhere! To find the Pokemon, they just appear out of nowhere. They are literally all over the place. If you see one, you tap it and throw Pokeballs at it to collect it. Once you have collected some, you can go to the Battle Gym so the Pokemon can battle each other. A lot of people play Pokemon Go! On Fe

Special Olympics has a fundraiser called Polar Plunge. All donations go to Special Olympics. The Polar Plunge takes place at various locations, we are going to the one at Loon Lake in Yorkville on Sunday 3/5 at 1:00. It ends at 3:00 pm. My family formed a team called "Team Brain Freeze". Please make a donation. Here is a link to our team page: http://soill.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.team&teamID=8183 The idea is to actually go into the cold lake water in

On Sunday night, I got to watch the Super Bowl while I was bowling. It was a usual Sunday schedule ... we went to Main Event in Warrenville, to the bowling alley portion like usual. We got checked in because we are in a league. We went to the lane they told us to go to. As you can tell here, it was the very last one (see above). Sheila brought a football board game as seen in the picture. We played the board game for big-time prizes while we were bowling. I won a prize 4 time