BVHS alum organizes USD Special Olympics Club

In between managing three jobs and carving out some time for a little summer fun, Kelsey Koupal also found the time to organize a new club at the University of South Dakota: the USD Special Olympics Club.

Following her freshman year at the University of Minnesota, Koupal, 19, transferred to USD with the mindset that she wanted to step up her involvement in extra-curricular activities. So, she turned to her passions, quickly determining there was a need to launch a campus club for Special Olympics. 

“What I wanted to do was be able to organize events so that USD students could play with athletes. I think that’s really important for college kids to get experience interacting with those individuals, especially after you go into the workforce. You’ll work with a range of people and be able to have that experience, plus these people are awesome to work with; they’re all amazing,” she said. 

The club’s goal is to connect college students and individuals with intellectual disabilities through intramural sports. Club members cheer on athletes and also have the opportunity to play side-by-side with them in sports such as basketball, softball and volleyball.

Determined to bring the club to fruition, Koupal received the green light from South Dakota Special Olympics and USD to proceed. Then she put out the call for members.

“Coming onto campus, I was hoping to get 30 members this year, and within two weeks, we had 175. It was just nuts,” she said. “It really has gotten huge and people are really excited.”

Koupal’s passion for working with people with disabilities began early on in the 19-year-old’s life. In third grade, one of her best friends had Down syndrome, she said.

“She’s one of the most selfless people that I’ve ever known,” Koupal said. 

She’s also worked as a mentor for students with Down syndrome, taught in a preschool for children with intellectual abilities and volunteered for Big Brothers Big Sisters.

A variety of events are planned for the club’s first year, starting with Unified Sports Day on Oct. 14. Special Olympic athletes – ranging in age from 5 to 75 – from Vermillion and surrounding communities have been invited to the event. 

“We’ll have sports stations set up where athletes can go around and interact with all of our members,” Koupal said. “That will be a really cool way to start those introductions. After that, we’re hoping to take the athletes to a Coyote football game, and they’ll get to meet the players afterwards.”

Club members will also have the opportunity to be basketball teammates through Special Olympics’ Intramural Unified Teams program and will take the court during half-time of a Coyote basketball game. The USD club will also join the “Spread the Word to End the Word” campaign and wrap up the year with a 5K run/walk.

“The first year will be a lot of planning, figuring out what works and what doesn’t work, and then after that we’ll have more events and relationships,” Koupal said. “We had a meeting yesterday talking about the event, and a couple Special Olympic athletes were there. They were raising their hands and asking what they could do. I told them ‘You could do whatever you want. We’ll make it work,’ and they were just so excited.”

Because the club was organized following USD’s budget process, club members are staging various fund-raising endeavors that started with the sale of 100 dozen Krispy Kreme donuts last month.

“I didn’t know if we would sell them all or not, but we sold out in about two and a half hours!” Koupal said, “so, we’ll want to do that again.”

Expenses, however, are expected to be minimal, Koupal said. The club plans to pay for meals for the athletes and admission into USD games; sports equipment will be borrowed from USD Athletics.

“We don’t have membership fees because we’re trying to make it as inclusive as possible,” she said. “But if people find it in their heart that they want to donate, that would be great.”

Any leftover funds, she said, will be donated to Special Olympics.

USD Special Olympics can be found on Facebook, Twitter and has a website, specialolympicsusd.com.

Koupal’s mother, Karen, beams with pride as she talks about her daughter’s undertaking.

“I am so proud of her. I just thought it was such a wonderful idea because there was no club there yet, and she just took it upon herself to go for it. She just gave it her all and is so excited that there are so many students interested in this club and they are excited to interact with these Special Olympic athletes,” she said.

Karen Koupal said she plans to help serve lunch at Saturday’s Unified Sports Day.

Although Koupal, who is majoring in communication disorders and minoring in Spanish and disability services with intent for a career as a speech language pathologist, took the initiative to organize the club, she’s not willing to take the credit for doing so.

“I would never want to take any of the credit for doing this because it’s really the Vermillion community, the Special Olympics community in general, and also our student members that really helped to get this off the ground. I couldn’t have done this myself and I always want to give credit to those around me and those who started Special Olympics,” she said. “It was a lot of work, but it’s obviously paid off so much already, and I’m so excited to see what the year brings.”