#50for50: Volume 14
▪️ Emmett Abdo
▪️ 29 years old
▪️ Philadelphia County
“I like spending time with friends and reconnecting with old ones. And Special Olympics really helped me to speak outside to people. I became a Global Messenger. Before, I would cut off some of my speech and hesitate a little bit. I felt a little bit nervous speaking in front of people. But then I had to speak more in front of people and I spoke at different events. That really helped me to grow as a speaker. And it definitely helped me carry outside that zone and helped me out with a lot of things, like improving my time on swimming, too. I feel really good now. … I work at Holiday Inn Express in Philadelphia. I’m a bellhop. I have to carry up luggage to different rooms, store luggage, clean the lobby, clean the windows, take deliveries up to the Sales Department and Housekeeping. I’ve been there for six years. I really like meeting people from all around the state and the world. … I’ve been doing Special Olympics for 18 years. I found it by playing soccer. I thought it was really good and then I moved on to tennis, swimming and basketball. And I would like to start bowling next year, too. One of my biggest accomplishments was making the Summer Games in 2012 for swimming. Before that, it was really hard for me to qualify for Summer Games, but one year I found a little bit of an edge training. I put in a lot of training outside of Special Olympics, like running and walking outside of school, and it really helped me get in shape. My next biggest goal is to make USA Games in Orlando.”
Special Olympics Pennsylvania 