December 2019: All About Me! Hi, I'm Joy and I live in Des Moines, Iowa. I am a senior at Roosevelt High School. I have been a Special Olympics athlete since I was 8 and have competed in equestrian, swimming, track and bowling. My BFF Evie and I started a Unified bowling team at our school this year, and now we are doing Unified basketball. Earlier this year, Evie and I traveled all the way to Abu Dhabi to for the Global Youth Leadership Summit. That's where we learned how to make our school a Unified Champion School. I am a leader for inclusion because I love to help students with and without disabilities come together for sports and friendship. It makes me feel very happy! I am really proud of us for working so hard to achieve our dream! I can't wait to graduate and get started on my future! Right now I work as a barista at a coffee shop near my school, and I am in the culinary assistant program at my school. I have 7 pets: Max, Sophie, Saylor, Ruby and Shay (dogs), and Mavis and Ernie (cats). I also have a sister and a brother. My favorite food is nachos!

January 2020: Inclusion Heroes and Resolutions I know that it seems like I am choosing someone easy, but the person I pick as my inclusion hero is Evie Sly. She is a youth ambassador, but she is also a person who notices when someone is being left out and invites them to join. Ever since she was little she has had so many friends who have intellectual differences and she treats them just the same as her other friends. She is not afraid to stand in front of our WHOLE school and talk about how much the "R" word hurts some people. She gets so excited about Unified sports and asks everyone she knows to join. I want to be brave like Evie. Sometimes I feel nervous talking about my disability, but she helps me when we give speeches. She really is an inclusion hero! My other inclusion hero is Eunice Kennedy Shriver. I met her when I was 4, and even though I don't really remember it, there are pictures of me talking to her and she has the biggest smile when she is looking at me. My mom always reminds me when it is her birthday so we can take a minute to talk about all the amazing things she did to create inclusion in the world.

February 2020: Pop Culture A movie that I saw over the summer that is a great story about inclusion is The Peanut Butter Falcon. One of the main characters is Zak, a man with Down syndrome! I loved that an actor with a disability was picked for the movie. The actor who played Zak is named Zach Gottsagen. I think it was his first movie. I did not like that the "R" word was a few times in the movie. It made me feel bad when people said that word to Zak, but my mom explained it was to show the audience watching the movie that saying the r-word is mean and hurtful. The movie was really good though and I think everyone should see it! I was also thinking about shows that do not show inclusion and I kept thinking about Disney shows. You never see people with disabilities in shows like Austin & Ally, Good Luck Charlie, and Sam & Cat. They should hire more actors with disabilities because that would be more like the real world!

March 2020: Respect Special Olympics Iowa had a lot of fun things planned for March but some stuff got cancelled because of the coronavirus. We did do a super awesome project where we made digital signs that say "Inclusion means ..." and "Respect is ..." and people could print the signs out and write their thoughts, and then post a photo to social media using special hashtags: #InclusionRevolution #RespectWeek, #ChooseToInclude and #SpecialOlympicsIowa. Those signs made it all over town and SO many people got the chance to tell their inclusion story or what respect means to them. It was so great!

April 2020: Health When I was going to school every day, I used to walk over 7,000 steps every day! But now that we can't go anymore I am not active enough so I have been looking for ways to get my butt moving! Stay Healthy with Special Olympics Iowa is a Facebook group where we can post what we are doing to stay healthy instead of turning into couch potatoes. They give us challenges to try, and a lot of people post pictures of themselves working out. That's pretty cool. Another thing I like a lot is that our city's trails are still open so a lot of people are taking hikes and going for walks. I went last Sunday with my family and we took a hike, and then sat in a big empty field and ate a picnic lunch. I felt so much better after being outside with my family! I'm pretty sad that we did not get to have Unified track at my school because of the quarantine. That was going to be so fun. My gymnastics meet got cancelled too. :(

May 2020: Family I have the best family! They support me in school and encourage me to try new activities. They helped me a lot when we wanted to start Unified Sports at my school this year. Me, my mom, my stepmom, my sister, my best friend and her mom all got a "lucky few" tattoo because it's like we are in a club and we want everyone to know that Down syndrome is not a bad thing. My family helps me grow, and be a beautiful person.

June 2020: Summer Fun Last summer I worked at the Special Olympics Iowa office and I liked it a lot because it felt good to go and do a job that was important. My work friends were so nice to me and it was hard work but it was also fun. I got to meet a bunch of nice people who really liked me. I showed them that I have many abilities even though I have Down syndrome. But I think they already knew that! I hope that more companies hire people with disabilities in the future.

July 2020: Music My favorite summer bop is Firework by Katy Perry because it is a song all about inclusion and spreading the word that everyone has their own special abilities. I really like Lizzo too because she spreads a positive message about loving your body no matter what size you are, and she doesn't care about what other people think of her. More artists should write songs that remind everyone that they have talents and good things to give to the world.