Calista M. Pierce

Calista knows how much her brother struggles to do the things most kids can do with ease. She also knows how much he loves being able to go to Special Olympics competitions and how great he feels when he wins an award. She has wanted to become an official Special Olympics volunteer ever since he started participating in the program in 2005.

Calista decided that since she is only 7 and too young to be an official volunteer right now, she would try to help out in another way. When she found out that our local Special Olympics program lost their largest fundraising event and was worried about having the funding to be able to take athletes to competitions, she came up with her own unique plan! She decided to make and sell crafts to help fundraise for the program. Since December 2006, she has spent over 100 hours making and selling her crafts and has raised $440.00 for the program thus far. She continues to make and sell her crafts every chance she gets and says that her goal is to raise $3000.00! She also donated 40 bowling picture frame magnets to be given out as awards at the Crawford County Special Olympics bowling party! She named her project Calista Cares and has a website in the hopes of getting the word out and raising more money for Crawford County Special Olympics.

Not only has she done all of this, but since the age of 5, Calista has helped out as much as she possibly can at all of the Special Olympics events she goes to. Whether it be keeping scores in bowling, timing during track and field, ball chasing during the softball throws or simply cheering on the athletes, she has been ready and willing to lend a helping hand! She is her brother's biggest cheerleader both in and out of competition! She is an amazing little girl who spends many hours working on her crafts and is constantly trying to find more places to sell them. She never expects anything in return, she just wants to bring in as much money for the program as she possibly can to make sure area athletes can continue to compete! She has been an inspiration to her family, friends and Crawford County Special Olympics!