Despite blustery winds and brisk temperatures, students from Evanston Township High School Northwestern hosted their first-ever Special Needs Awareness Field Day Palooza on Saturday morning.

Around 30 NU to Benefit Special Olympics members, ETHS students, parents, teachers and Evanston community members gathered at the Lakefill to play games and eat breakfast.

The event was started by four ETHS students in the school’s Emerge leadership development program. Around 40 ETHS sophomores participate in the Emerge program each year, dividing into groups of four or five and selecting an issue to address in the Evanston community, said Mary Collins, ETHS’ community service coordinator. Emerge programming is facilitated by Collins and NU student volunteers.

The group chose to work with community members with developmental disabilities after their work with ETHS’ chapter of the national nonprofit Best Buddies program, said Molly Conover, an ETHS sophomore in Emerge who helped to organize Field Day Palooza. Best Buddies links middle school, high school and college students with a person who suffers from an intellectual or developmental disability to help them gain the confidence to seek employment, education or leadership roles.

“We got to say like the top three issues we cared about,” Conover said. “We all picked special needs because we’re in Best Buddies, all of us are passionate about it and it’s something we thought we could actually make a difference with.”

Collins said the small groups are then responsible for contacting an outside party to help them organize an event or service project around their selected topic.

“Part of the leadership program is to work very independently with coaching from me and Northwestern students who are facilitators,” Collins said. “(This group) tried to work with a lot of different organizations and NUSO was the most responsive. It was great because that’s how they ended up having an event on the Lakefill.”

The Field Day Palooza consisted of several games, including soccer, football, cornhole, badminton and hula hooping, as well as space for attendees to eat bagels and converse.

NUSO co-chair Jenn Murphy, a Weinberg senior, said she enjoyed planning the event with Emerge, and thought the final product was a success.

“I’ve coached sports for people with disabilities since I was a little kid and I just love doing it,” Murphy said. “They say those who can’t do teach, and I can’t do sports but I love to coach them. I love to help them achieve their goals and connect our athletes with resources like these.”

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