On Thursday, February 24th, Coginchaug Regional High School’s Unified Sports team and cheerleaders attended a            Positive Leadership for Active Alaskan Youth “Play Day.”

The students of Unified Sports and Campus Unification gathered together in the Coginchaug gymnasium. The event was run by a group called PLAAY, which stands for Positive Leadership for Active Alaskan Youth. The groups started this session with some brief introductions from the leaders of the event. For this specific session, the leader was Natalie Finch. According to the PLAAY website, Finch is a senior at the University of Alaska-Anchorage and served in the army for four years but is now studying physical education. Finch said, “Everyone’s wellness is just as important as my own” and she, “hopes to educate the lives of people around her.” 

PLAAY has partnered with Special Olympics Alaska for the events. The event was live-stream nationally on Youtube. The group started with stretching for a quick warm-up. After that, Finch led the students in a game of Simon Says, mixing a fun game with exercise. This session was the first of six, all of which are with different schools in the United States and Mexico.

Senior Seth Overton, who has been in Unified Sports for a year and a half, said “it was super fun and exciting, my favorite part was how excited some of the other students were and how they were talking about it for weeks.”  He also said, “they were also excited it was being streamed nationally” and “I liked the message behind it and what they were trying to do.” Overton also mentioned that Unified Sports also “helps him get through the day and puts a smile on his face.” Corey Quincy said “it was very fun” and he loved the dancing. Marissa Inglis said she “loved dancing in front of the camera and being on TV.”  

Image 1: A TV was set up in the gymansim so the students could watch and interact with the leaders from PLAAY.

Image 2: The students playing Simon Says.