Submitted Photo
Fredonia students packed the stands to support the Unified basketball team last season at an “assembly game” held during the school day.
Fredonia has received national banner status from Special Olympics of New York as a Unified Champion School. The award highlights the district’s efforts to provide inclusive sports and activities for students with and without intellectual disabilities.
Momentum began to build in Fredonia’s quest for Unified Sports recognition at the district’s graduation ceremony at SUNY Fredonia when Student Body President Ava Rukavina spoke to the impact Unified Sports programs have had on her.
“Becoming involved in the Unified program was the best decision I made in high school,” Rukavina said. “It taught me so much more about life and friendship. I can honestly say I’m a better person for having met and befriending each and every athlete I played with these past four years.”
From there, the movement gained steam as Naomi McKnatt, the mother of a Unified athlete at Fredonia, advocated for Fredonia to receive recognition as a Unified Champion School. McKnatt spoke to the impact the program has had on her son, Luke, who will wrap up his education at Fredonia this year.
OBSERVER Photo by Braden Carmen
Fredonia’s Elijah Schrantz celebrates after making a shot during a Unified Basketball game in Silver Creek.
“Luke’s future is far brighter because of Unified, the relationships that he has made and the dreams that we now dare to dream because we’ve seen and experienced firsthand the pathways that are forged by way of opportunity,” McKnatt said.
Now, Fredonia is one of 13 schools to receive the well-deserved recognition this year. Fredonia joins Dunkirk and Silver Creek in receiving the honor.
To earn national banner status, a school must meet 10 national standards of excellence in the areas of inclusion, advocacy, and respect. The primary activities within these standards include inclusive youth leadership, whole school engagement, and Special Olympics Unified Sports programs, where students with and without disabilities train and compete as teammates. National banner schools also must demonstrate they are self-sustainable or have a plan in place to sustain these activities into the future.
“Unified is one of the most exciting things to happen in a school, ever. The inclusivity and fun it has brought to our school culture is life-changing for many of our students and staff,” said Julie Sanders, one of the district’s Unified coaches.
The Unified Champion Schools model is a strategy for schools Pre-K through university that intentionally promotes meaningful social inclusion by bringing together students with and without intellectual disabilities to create accepting school environments. The model is supported by the Office of Special Education Programs at the U.S. Department of Education. It has been proven, through research, to be an effective and replicable means to providing students with and without disabilities the opportunity to form positive social relationships and promote a socially inclusive school climate.
“I have really enjoyed Unified Sports because it is a chance for everyone to have a set group of friends, and no matter what their school day looks like, they can come to a positive environment where there are people who are there for them,” Fredonia student Charles Domenico said.
The presence of Unified Sports programs at Fredonia gave Luke McKnatt the opportunity to socialize with the rest of the student body. Social interaction was hard to come by in other settings, as Luke was often placed in self-contained classrooms to accommodate for his needs with autism, ADHD, and Sensory Processing Disorder.
“Unified Sports opened doors for our son that we thought had been long shut,”McKnatt said.
Prior to joining the Unified Bowling team, Luke McKnatt had never played a team sport. He now plays on all three Unified teams: Bowling, Basketball, and Bocce. His brother, Asher, competes with him on the Unified Bowling team, and his youngest brother, Solomon, participates in the annual Polar Plunge fundraiser to support Special Olympics.
“Unified not only brings students together; it has unified our family,” McKnatt said.
More than 340 schools are currently participating in Unified Champion Schools programming in New York, as part of 10,000 schools across the country including 49 states, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, engaged in the program. The Unified Champion Schools strategy aims to expand to 20,000 schools by 2030.
Rukavina exemplified the district’s vision of helping students become their greatest selves at her high school graduation, stating, “If Unified taught me anything, it’s that being kind and accepting is a really good place to start.”
Now that the district’s vision has caught the eye of the Special Olympics, the banner Fredonia rightfully earned will display those values for all who see its place in the rafters.