VGCC Student Recalls Special Times With Special Olympians At Games

The Special Olympics World Summer Games are several weeks past, but Ronel Cook says he’s “still on Cloud 9” after volunteering during the games. Cook, who lives in Henderson, has completed one year at Vance-Granville in pursuit of an associate’s degree in the Early Childhood Associate program. He will be a sophomore this fall and also is president of the VGCC Student North Carolina Association of Educators.

When he heard the World Games would be held in the Triangle this summer, Cook said he wanted to get involved because, “I love to work with children.” His participation was limited because he cares for his parents, both in their 80s, and his six-year-old son, Shaquille.

Cook worked as a volunteer with the production crew, preparing Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh for the opening ceremonies and Wallace Wade Stadium at Duke University for the closing. “I worked with wardrobe, all stage activities, wherever I was needed,” said Cook, 48, who moved to North Carolina from New York City in 1996.

“It was very special for me to see all the countries marching in at the opening ceremonies,” he said. “I have never traveled, and to see all these nationalities together at once was a unique experience.”

The Special Olympians are amazing, according to Cook. “To see them run and lift weights and play games, you would never believe they were disabled,” he said. “They appear quite normal.”

While many of them did not speak English well, “They could speak well enough to tell you what they wanted and to understand what was told them,” he said.

Preparing for the opening ceremonies, Cook had the chance to meet many celebrities who participated, including Billy Crystal, Grant Hill, Shirley Caesar and Stevie Wonder. He said it was a “big thrill” to meet Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver. It was Shriver’s mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who started the Special Olympics in 1968.

Cook hopes to use his degree from VGCC to continue his love of working with youth and teach in the Head Start program, which his son attended during the past couple of years. A former self-employed chauffeur in New York, Cook was Head Start’s 1997-98 Volunteer Parent of the Year. Currently he serves as community representative to the Head Start Board of Governors and chairman of its Policy Council.

Regardless of all he’s involved in, Ronel Cook describes his total experience in the Special Olympics World Summer Games, next to the birth of his son, as “the most exciting and happiest experience of my life. I was glad to be in the midst of so many great people – the stage directors, sound and lighting crews were the best in the world, and ‘wow,’ I was right there with them.”