In the Spotlight
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Samantha Tabacchi, Manager, Safilo S.p.A. (Photo Contributed by Safilo) |
As a global corporate sponsor, Safilo has been a strong Healthy Athletes supporter over the years, and this relationship has directly impacted Safilo Manager Samantha Tabacchi's life.
We encourage others to share their stories by sending an e-mail to Jessica Beauchemin at jbeauchemin@specialolympics.org
Samantha Tabacchi's first encounter with a person with intellectual disabilities was not a positive one. “I can remember very clearly as a child playing quietly by myself on the beach and then suddenly being overwhelmed by another child who started to hit me over and over again,” she said. “I realized immediately that this was a child with special needs, and my parents had always taught me to be kind to such children and to treat them like any other child, so I did not react.” But the impact of the incident left a lasting impression on Tabacchi - and as a result she did her best to avoid contact with individuals with intellectual disabilities.
Flash forward to 2002, when Safilo S.p.A., one of the largest manufacturers of frames and sunglasses and a company owned by Tabacchi's family, generously agreed to provide lenses, frames and sunglasses at no cost to Special Olympics athletes as part of the Special Olympics-Lions Clubs International Opening Eyes® Program. While Tabacchi knew that Safilo's involvement in such an important initiative was invaluable to Special Olympics athletes, she couldn't help remembering the experience from her childhood; the pleasure of working on such an important initiative was mixed with the fear of getting too involved.
To face her fears from the past, Tabacchi decided to volunteer at an Opening Eyes event in Fiuggi, Italy. She helped in the screening, surrounded by opticians and optometrists who knew Safilo and her father well. She felt ill at ease looking after a group of athletes they waited to be screened. One particular athlete, Riccardo, just could not stay still and kept bothering the doctors and the other athletes waiting in line. As Tabacchi recalls, “I found myself surrounded by kids, must of whom were attentive and obedient, while Riccardo was getting in everyone's way and would not keep still for one second. After trying several times to keep him in order, without thinking I said, 'Bloody hell, Riccardo, come here!' In that moment Riccardo stopped immediately. He looked at me and then shouted out to everyone in a really loud voice, 'You said Bloody Hell! She said Bloody Hell. Bloody Hell! Bloody Hell!' I felt everyone's eyes on me as they heard Riccardo shout and I had never felt so small in my life! I didn't know where to look until everyone fell about laughing and in the end I ended up laughing myself too.”
This was a catalytic experience for Tabacchi. “That was the exact moment when I lost my fear of being with people with special needs and that fear was replaced with a joy in working with them,” she said.
Her direct experience working with Special Olympics athletes from around the world helped dispel a negative stereotype Tabacchi developed as a child, in turn positively impacting her attitude about individuals with intellectual disabilities, an attitude formed many years prior. Safilo continues to be a champion for the Special Olympics movement. To date, Safilo has enabled tens of thousands of athletes from around the world to not only improve their vision but to become more competent in sports and in life. In 2006 the company teamed up Olympic athletes with Special Olympics athletes on a photo shoot with fashion photographer Stefano Sandonnini; these images were used to publish a unique 2007 calendar distributed to Safilo customers and Special Olympics supporters around the world.
Return to Healthy Athletes Update, Spring 2008
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