Annett Langer worked as a volunteer at the Olympics World Games in Berlin.
“I had goosebumps the entire time. It was so moving. It was an incredible feeling to be there in person.” Even weeks later, Annett Langer, CPIM/Business Process Management, was still caught up in emotion as she spoke about the opening ceremony of the Special Olympics World Games in Berlin’s Olympic stadium.
People with mental disabilities and multiple handicaps compete in these games, and her moving, personally enriching experience with them as a volunteer resonates in every word she says. As a volunteer – a ball girl during tennis matches – she felt she was part of a large family full of people with special skills and needs.
“We are all just people. Yes, these people are different, but they are just like you or me,” Langer said. What she experienced in the form of openness and unfiltered warmth during her time in Berlin will likely stay with her far into the future. “You have to experience it and feel it yourself.”
From the athletics standpoint, she found the competitors to be tremendously focused and skilled. She has the deepest respect for them and was amazed at their level of performance. “I am active in sports myself and I know how much effort it takes and how hard and tirelessly you have to work.” In her leisure time, she attends sporting events of different kinds and has gotten to know “a lot of very nice people from different countries.”
Overall, she would have liked to see the general public show even more appreciation for the World Games athletes. But Langer puts it this way: Her involvement “has contributed in a small way to making the world a bit better, more inclusive and more diverse place.” She would like to see others follow her lead. Incidentally, after her return from Berlin, she immediately applied to be a volunteer at the next Special Olympics World Games.
