Special Olympics Cayman Islands has received high marks from counterparts for hosting the landmark regional bocce event late last month.

With the support of Special Olympics Caribbean Initiative and partners, including the Lions Club of Grand Cayman and the Government of Cayman Islands, the association staged a bocce tournament, in addition to offering training for coaches and officials, and healthy athletes screening for 19 regional programmes.

The sport of bocce requires players to use an underarm action to bowl a ball at a target. Points are awarded based on the ball’s proximity to the target.

David Benjamin, chairman of the board of Special Olympics Trinidad & Tobago, noted that a template has been set for programmes in the Caribbean.

“They have certainly raised the bar for the rest of the Caribbean programmes in terms of venue set-up, in terms of the level of organisation, volunteers’ input, as well as the logistics that went into planning this event,” he said regarding the May 22-26 staging.

With an eye on plans for Trinidad and Tobago to stage the inaugural Special Olympics regional beach games in November this year, Benjamin added: “You could see that a high level — almost project management structure — was used and that is really what we want in terms of the quality of events that we promote for Special Olympics.

“Special Olympics must be on par and must be parallel to the IOC (International Olympic Committee), to FIFA (football’s world governing body), and to all those other professional organisations. We must never produce something that is subpar and what we seeing here is definitely above par.”

While in Cayman, a business meeting, attended by regional stakeholders as well as leadership representatives from Special Olympics International (SOI) and Special Olympics North America (SONA), was also convened.

“Twinning the business meeting in the same space was very beneficial. We talked about strategies, about forward planning for the Caribbean movement, getting all of our national directors and some of the board chairs together to flesh out strategic plans, so that we are all on the same page,” Benjamin explained.

Roy Howell, executive director of Special Olympics Jamaica, was also impressed by the high standards set by the local organisers over the five days.

“The level to which everything was organised was no less than what you’d see at a big international event. We have to give credit to them for putting on an event of this magnitude,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

He said the athletes benefited immensely.

“It was a full week of events and it was amazing to see all the athletes, including the Jamaicans, perform at such a high standard. It augurs well for the Caribbean because you can see these athletes grew in confidence and skill over the time they were in the Cayman Islands. The event provided a great opportunity for these athletes for when the time comes for them to perform on the world stage,” Howell said.

Mary-Ann Cameron, chairperson of the board of Special Olympics Suriname, said the meeting helped her to outline a plan to kick-start the unified champion schools programme in her country.

“I was encouraged by what was discussed at the business meeting and I know I’m not alone. As the board chair and a lot is coming on my plate but I’ve been getting support from Special Olympics Caribbean Initiative, and I really feel that it’s a family.

“We are committed to start the unified champion schools in Suriname. We’re going to start with one school — I have a school in mind — and then from there we will expand. We want to start in the capital Paramaribo and then expand to two districts. From the business meeting I picked up ideas to execute the different plans for our programme,” Cameron said.

The unified champion schools programme promotes social inclusion by bringing together young people with and without intellectual disabilities for sport competition, educational and youth leadership projects, and other activities.

With oversight provided by the Caribbean Initiative, the unified champion schools was first rolled out in Jamaica in 2022, followed by Trinidad & Tobago, St Kitts & Nevis and Bermuda.