Ping!
Charles Cooper, a Washington, D.C., attorney, receives frequent text messages from his daughter, 21-year-old McKinley Cooper. He welcomes that "ping" sound from his phone. She's texting every few hours this week from Lincoln. She calls every night. After all, she's never traveled alone to a place where she knows absolutely no one.
Nevertheless, "I can't tell you how much joy and happiness there's been in her voice," Charles Cooper said Thursday.
There's abundant joy and happiness in Lincoln this week. Call me corny, but spend a couple hours at any of the Special Olympics National Games venues, watch the participants, and you'll feel the intrinsic exuberance. It's as real as the sweat dripping from your brow.
We're having a ball with these games. And let's face it, an event this large and complex could never transpire so smoothly without an army of volunteers, including 1,100 from outside Nebraska, according to Deb Stroh, senior director of volunteers.
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Bless these folks. They often are relatives of participants, or members of youth groups, or work for a large corporation that encourages volunteer work.
It could be your next-door neighbor.
Or maybe just a college kid who felt the Special Olympics tugging at her heart.
"I don't know, I guess my heart just told me I should be here to experience this," said McKinley Cooper, who this fall will be a senior at Georgetown University.
Her family has long supported the cause.
That said, "This is kind of a different trip for me because I've never really gone anywhere by myself and stayed overnight by myself. I feel safe and feel like I've already met so many wonderful friends. It's been a fantastic trip."
She's traveled extensively as a softball player, in recent years as an outfielder for the Georgetown squad. She's the baby of her family -- the youngest of six children who grew up in McLean, Va., about 15 minutes from Washington, D.C. She's especially close to her father.
"I do almost everything with my dad, especially when it comes to sports and taking trips together," she said. "I think taking this trip by myself, without him, was mostly what made me nervous."
She arrived in Lincoln on Saturday night and went straight downtown to the Holiday Inn to pick up her volunteer materials -- schedule, credential, booklets, et al.
She's shy by nature, she said.
However, "As soon as I went to the hotel to check in and meet my colleagues, it was fun," she said. "I was at ease. It just felt very right to me.
"It's so organized. It's been a breeze. Plus, I'm among the most amazing people, the nicest people, and the most amazing athletes, who are just so pure and good. That's the first thing I recognized, really. You go out and watch them play and see them get excited when great plays are made. It makes it all worth it to be here."
She recalls broaching the idea of the trip during a family dinner.
"They were a little taken aback," she said. "Of the six kids, we've all done some great things, but nobody had expressed interest in this. I think everyone was really excited. But, of course, I think they were worried about ‘the baby' going off by herself.
"I think they're proud of me."
Reach Steven M. Sipple at 473-7440 or ssipple@journalstar.com.
