Lydia is a 12th grader at Holland Christian High School in Holland, Michigan. She has participated in Special Olympics events for about two years, and has gotten involved in many leadership roles. Lydia is a Unified Partner in her school’s Unified Soccer and Unified Basketball team. This year, Lydia became involved in the Special Olympics Michigan's Youth Activation Committee (YAC). She also serves as a head of her school's Activation Committee, the Maroons Activation Committee (MAC). Lydia became a Youth Leader because she wants to see the inclusion program at her school grow, and also see the message of inclusion spread within her larger community. Lydia believes that inclusion needs to be commonplace everywhere because everyone is worthy of acceptance.

Benji is also a senior at Holland Christian High School in Holland, Michigan. He has been involved with Special Olympics for two years as a Unified Partner on various Unified Sports teams at his school. He plays Unified Soccer, Unified Basketball, and Unified Bocce at his high school. A highlight of Benji’s participation with Special Olympics was attending the Special Olympics USA Games in Florida in the Summer of 2022 to play soccer! This year, Benji also joined the Special Olympics Youth Activation Committee (YAC). Benji became a Youth Leader because it makes him happy to help his teammates. He loves to be a part of the Unified program at his school and he wants to help to spread inclusion!
Lydia and Benji noticed that although the Unified Program in their school system is very strong in their high school, it is not quite as strong in their elementary schools. They want to improve the Unified Program in their local elementary schools so that all of the youth in their school system can be part of a Unified community.
In order to put their project into action, Lydia and Benji will host a Young Athletes Day at each of the three elementary schools in their school system. These will be centered around Unified Sports, and students involved in the Youth Activation Group at the high school will volunteer and participate, too! Additionally, Lydia and Benji hope to expand the Unified Sports programming outside of these designated days.
Over the 6-month period of their project, Lydia and Benji hope to create an environment where youth with disabilities feel welcome and appreciated within their schools. They hope to offer more sporting opportunities to these youth, and to start an annual tradition of hosting “Young Athlete Day” in the schools within their school system.