Collier County Special Olympics able to continue thanks to help from businesses

Reporter: Taylor Smith Writer: Drew Hill
Published: Updated:
molly kirk
Credit: Special Olympics

The Special Olympics is all about overcoming challenges. However, it takes more than just grit to be able to participate. It also takes donations.

There are businesses stepping in to help with funding after the pandemic garnered fewer donations than usual.

Molly Kirk is one of the Special Olympics athletes. “I play tennis.” When did she start?  “I was little. I was like three years old,” Kirk said.

For Molly, playing a sport is more than winning a game.

“I want to show more caring and show more sportsmanship,” Kirk said. “I would like to help other kids.”

She wants to help other athletes who have disabilities learn how to play, too.

“I feel like the best thing of all for Special Olympics is we always make new friends and always new faces of coaches,” said Kirk.

She has been a part of the Collier County Special Olympics team for years, but since the pandemic began garnering funding has been tough.

Brent Pleeter is with South Street, a restaurant in Naples, and says he knows how hard the hospitality industry was hit that he cannot imagine how badly others have it.

“The hospitality industry got hit really hard, but there is so many other organizations that you don’t even think about that got hit hard,” Pleeter said.

Pleeter teamed up with Naples Nissan to help the kids. “Those kids deserve to be on the field all the time,” said Pleeter.

In the next weeks, they will be fundraising for the Collier County Special Olympics called “Just For Kicks.”

The money raised will help give the kids uniforms, housing and training so they can compete in the 2022 USA games hosted in Orlando. But not just so that they can win.

“We always have fun!” Molly said.

But also, to help them grow. “It’s not just about confidence in sports. It’s about building confidence in life,” Pleeter said.

“It means a lot to us; they just work so hard on fundraisers and do so nice things for us,” Kirk said.

The Kick-off event will take place at South Street from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. tonight.  They will be raising money for the Special Olympic USA games until April 5th.

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