The Downingtown High School East (DHSE) Special Olympics Club and Unified Bocce team were recently awarded a $1,000 grant by the Believe and Achieve Foundation to promote inclusion and awareness of neurodiversity in athletics. The groups will use the funds to replace aging bocce materials, as well as take a trip to Citizens Bank Park for the Special Olympics Polar Plunge in February.

Unified Sports is a fully inclusive, coed high school sports program that brings together a proportional number of students with and without disabilities on teams for training and competition. DHSE has offered Unified Bocce as a competitive PIAA sport since the 2018-19 school year, and the current team consists of 14 members.

The grants were funded by the proceeds and sponsorships from the 2022 Believe and Achieve Valor Bowl, an all-star football game for high school seniors in Chester County. DHSE is one of five recipients, all of which will be formally recognized and honored at the 2023 Valor Bowl.

To learn more about the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) program in the Downingtown Area School District, visit http://www.dasd.org/diversity.