Our local Middle School is hosting a scrimmage game that will be with my son's Special Olympic team which consists of both special needs kids and not special needs kids. The team practices each week and they have played a practice game with another middle school's basketball team. This is a great way for our team to incorporate their games into playing with the school's teams. The coaches just let the kids team up and they played together wonderfully. After the game, all the kids from the teams came over to meet our kids and it was a great experience. In order for this to work, you need to have the support of your local school system and try to blend any kind of sporting activity that may be sponsored by Special Olympics or your local rec team. I believe that sports and socialization are crucial to kids with special needs and the need for the kids to realize that we all matter and belong at every kind of event whether it be a game, concert, festival, or school social event. It is up to the parents to try and get together to assist in organizing more social interaction with the regular school programs and communicate with the school's administration to come up with ideas and opportunities. Kids with special needs sometimes need help as they get older to organize socialization events. I have also started sending parents e-mails to schedule movie meeting times for the kids and hope to expand that to include other social activities.