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Take a peek at the newest addition to the SNAP program
By: Addison Bruckman
Throughout the years at Dexter, the peer-to-peer and SNAP (Students Needing Accepting Peers) programs, has grown tremendously. From something that started off as small, with very few students helping, to having peer-to-peer classes overflowing with students wanting to help students with disabilities. A way that has made this program grow is through Unified Sports. Unified Sports joins people with and without intellectual disabilities on the same team. In the Fall of the 2023-24 school year, Dexter had a Unified Soccer team, and in the Winter of that same school year, Dexter had a Unified Basketball team, including students creekside through the high school. After seeing how successful these sports were, the idea of Unified Track came along, bringing together students with and without disabilities.
After seeing the success that Dexter had with Unified Soccer and Basketball, Kali Nowitze, head of Dexter High School’s Peer-to-Peer and SNAP programs, and special education teacher at Wylie Elementary School, Angela Anderson, thought it would be a good sport to do with the students. Nowitze and Anderson both have a background in track and they “love the idea of creating an inclusive track program” and, “it allows for more variety in ability”.
To make Unified Track possible, there is a need for any helping hands to make this successful. The National Honors Society has offered to help to make this work. For each Unified Meet, there are 40 open slots that students can sign up for. NHS students who sign up to help will have one of many roles. Those roles include set-up and providing award organizers, cooks/food organizations, volunteers in charge of running the events, press box, help with events, race timers, and much more.
For the Unified Track meets, they won’t look exactly how a high school track meet will look. A high school track meet consists of 12 track events and 5 field events. Those are the 100 meters, 200 meters, 400 meters, 800 meters, 1600 meters, 3200 meters, 110/100 Hurdles, 300 hurdles, 4×100, 4×200, 4×400, and 4×800 relays. The field events consist of pole vault, long jump, discus, shot put, and high jump.
As for Unified meets, the events that will be held are the 1 mile (1600), the buddy relay, the long jump, the 100-meter dash, and the tennis ball throw, which will represent the shot put. The meets will be held at Al Ritt Stadium, with the first events starting at 3:30. These meets will be held before High School meets, which start at 5:00.
The Unified Track team has 90 students participating and has 2 meets so far in the 2024 Spring Season.
“We have received a lot of positive feedback! The program has created a lot of opportunity and has allowed students to be challenged at their specific level. It’s creating friendships, allowing leadership opportunities, and building confidence” said Kali Nowitze
Not only has Unified Track opened up opportunities for students, but Nowitze and others have noticed a reduction in bullying, which is a big goal for the program.
