Mary-Ellen Powers

Mary-Ellen Powers is an athlete from Special Olympics Rhode Island in the North America Region. Mary-Ellen has competed in a variety of traditional and unified sports over the years. Through the pandemic, she stayed active by participating in virtual fitness classes and participated in track and field when it was safe to compete in sports with her team again. Mary-Ellen is looking forward to getting back in the pool and to start participating in Unified Bowling again. She has been involved in Special Olympics since 1999.

Mary-Ellen’s favorite parts about Special Olympics are competing in sports and accomplishing personal goals she sets for herself. She also values the friendships she made and the camaraderie they show each other. Mary-Ellen also loves everything about Athlete Leadership because it has had a huge impact on her life.

Mary-Ellen is excited for the congress in Berlin. She is looking forward to the whole experience.

Mary-Ellen is employed full time with Special Olympics Rhode Island where she is the Administrative Assistant and Athlete Leadership Specialist. When Mary-Ellen isn’t working or competing, she enjoys spending time with family, friends, and her boyfriend. She also enjoys doing photo projects from taking pictures to making albums and photo books. Recently Mary-Ellen has been having fun learning some German.

Mary-Ellen says that being an athlete leader means using your voice to speak on behalf of all athletes. She says it is a great honor for her to be an athlete leader. She especially appreciates the opportunities athlete leaders have and making a difference in the lives of others.

Mary-Ellen’s grant plan is to have an Athlete Leadership University in Rhode Island. Athletes who have completed the core modules (Introduction to Athlete Leadership and Understanding Leadership) will participate in the Athlete Leadership University. Then they can move on to the next step of becoming an Athlete Leader. Growing the number of Athlete Leaders will have a positive impact on the whole program.