April 26, 2010
LAS VEGAS -
For the sophomore class community service project, on Friday, April 16, the Rebels visited Opportunity Village (West Oakey Campus), a nonprofit charity that provides job training, employment, and social recreation activities to people with intellectual disabilities.
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Justine Sauder
Opportunity Village strives to help individuals achieve a sense of accomplishment and independence. When our team learned about all the ways this charity helps to improve the lives of people with intellectual related disabilities, we knew this would be perfect for our group.
With soccer balls in hand, we arrived at the campus ready to interact and help out. We entered the Opportunity Village building, and were directed straight to the work area. There, we found lots of very welcoming and excited individuals. We saw everyone was wearing hair nets and sanitary gloves, so we all put some on and scattered ourselves around the various work tables. The conversations started immediately with enthusiastic introductions, questions, joke telling, and some insight into which famous singer we best resembled.
When one o'clock rolled around it was time to clean up the work stations and break out the soccer balls. Right in the middle of the work area, our new friends gathered around as we showed them some of our soccer tricks. After a couple minutes of just our team playing, a few spectators joined in. Before we knew it, almost all of the workers were up and playing with us. There was more laughter in that thirty minute period than any of us had ever heard. We all felt so fortunate to see the effect our game and companionship had on this amazing group.
We saw first hand why Opportunity Village rightfully owns the distinction of "Las Vegas' Favorite Charity". Working with these individuals was truly an incredible opportunity for all of us. Our team was vastly impacted by the interactions we had with the people at Opportunity Village, and we look forward to working with this charity again in the future.
