RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, the Special Olympics began in Illinois on July 20, 1968, when the first Special Olympic Games were held at Soldier Field in Chicago; and
WHEREAS, in the fall of 1967, the Chicago Park District began plans for a citywide track meet modeled after the Olympics. Eunice Kennedy Shriver embraced the project and asked Anne McGlone Burke to enlarge the scope of the event to include athletes from around the country; and
WHEREAS, at the 1st International Special Olympics Summer Games at Soldier Field in Chicago, 1,000 individuals with special needs from 26 U.S. states and Canada competed in track in field and swimming; and
WHEREAS, Justice Ann Burke's original vision of involvement and participation for children in the Chicago Park District has grown into a worldwide opportunity for individuals with special needs to train and compete in athletic competition; and
WHEREAS, today athletes from more than 170 countries around the world compete in the Special Olympics Games; and
WHEREAS, in March of 2013, the Special Olympics program in Bharat, India welcomed its one-millionth registered athlete; and
WHEREAS, the mission of the Special Olympics is for people with special needs to develop physical fitness, to demonstrate courage and to experience joy through training and competition in Olympic-type sports; and
WHEREAS, the City of Chicago is proud to have been the birthplace of a competition that has grown into the successful worldwide event it is today; now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, That we, the Mayor and Members of the City Council of the City of Chicago, assembled this twenty-sixth day of June, 2013, do hereby congratulate the Special Olympics on the occasion of its 45th anniversary and wish it and all its participants much success in the years to come.
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