what you do, no matter what your background is, no matter where you
come from, they love you.”
Also, she emphasizes, for parents wondering about letting their
kids participate in Special Olympics, “I think the world is such a
judgmental place and it’s so sad that it is. I think when we’re in Special
Olympics there’s no judgement. Everybody’s just glad you’re there.” For
the benefit of the athletes, she adds, all volunteers are vetted.
When Kyle’s older brother Christopher got to high school, Yankton
Special Olympics started fielding a unified team, one in which
volunteers, often of the same age group as the athletes, partner with
them teaching, mentoring, befriending and helping during play.
Christopher became a unified partner. “It kind of has always been a
family thing,” she smiled, “and then of course when we got the girls, it
naturally evolved into them being drug into it too….They have been
exposed to it from the first day they ever arrived. … It’s just a normal
way of life.”
The girls are Sheri and James’ three daughters, adopted from foster
care three years ago. The Dukes began fostering in 2009 after the boys
graduated from high school. It was at that time that Sheri wished
for children of her own, but as she explains, “Due to circumstances
beyond my control, I wasn’t going to have any. … So that is why we
started fostering. I never intended to adopt three children. I was
thinking one. But, they came to us in 2012 — Brianna and Alissa, the
younger two — they came to live with us as foster children. It was a
couple of months later that we were asked to take on the older one.”
At the time, Brianna and Alissa were two and three years old. The
older sister Natasha, was already six, and had been in another foster
care situation by herself for some time. Sheri feared Natasha might
miss that one-on-one attention once she was around her sisters again.
She and James were also concerned that three girls might be too many
in an already chaotic household. Even so, they would not turn their
backs.
“And I can’t imagine life without her now.” Says Sheri, “She fits in
very well. She’s really grown and really done some amazing things.”
After four years of fostering, the time came to make a decision:
whether or not to adopt, but really the decision had already been
made. “I said to James well we can’t just not keep them now! My
parents are their grandparents! We’re their mom and dad!”
In 2014, Sheri went from volunteering, to co-leading the Special
Olympics delegation with Barb Clayton, and though it was never her
intention to head the delegation, a year later that’s exactly what she
was doing. “Thankfully we have great volunteers, so anytime I throw
something out there saying, ‘Hey I need help with this!’ they’re really
good about it.”
Now, along with Kyle, Alissa and Natasha qualify for Special
Olympics, “Two of my girls played softball for the first time last
summer. They both qualified for Special Olympics as well, so we now
have three of them in it currently. The third one doesn’t qualify she is
too young and she is not on an IEP.”
Some parents have difficulty with the idea of putting their child
on an IEP, but Sheri saw her girls struggling in ways that she knew
warranted attention, even if others didn’t notice. She believes that when
necessary assistance during youth gives kids the skills they needed
when they are older. “I don’t look for the here and now with any of my
kids. … I’m looking at, what are they going to do when I’m not here?
What is going to happen to these kids … when they’re out of school?
So I look at all of these things that they are able to get involved in as
stepping stones to helping them in their adult life.”
Kyle graduated high school a long time ago, but he still participates
in Special Olympics, and was selected to play softball at the national
Special Olympics competition next year — but he also goes to work
every day. “I am so proud. Kyle has a job and goes to work five days
a week and has held that job for many years. He’s been the employee
of the month several times. He’s been the employee of the year for the
disabilities group.
Kyles’ father, James Duke, will also be going to the nationals — as
a coach—along with athlete Jacob Anderson, and two other Yankton
Special Olympics coaches chosen as alternates.
Though she is not sure how long she will want to continue in her
role as delegation head, for now, Sheri is enjoying what she does.
“There’s times I tell James, ‘I think I don’t know if I have the energy for
this anymore, if I have the time for it anymore, but I don’t want it to
not continue, and I think we have a passion for it. Every year we get
done with one sport and it’s like, ‘Whew! We need a break!’ It’s fast and
furious and tiring, but by the time the next one comes around we’re
ready for it, and we just want to start again.”
vBy Cora Van Olson
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