Rain Rally raises money for Special Olympics
EAST STROUDSBURG, MONROE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — Students in the Poconos are making a splash for a great cause.
The 4th annual end-of-the-year Rain Rally kicked off today at East Stroudsburg High School South.
Students from local school districts gathered at the stadium parking and ran under the water hoses of the local fire department.
Indraloka expanding low-cost vet services
East Stroudsburg High School is one of the original schools in PA to hold the Rain Rally event, which is an offshoot of the Polar Plunge fundraiser for Special Olympics.
'This is something I've been doing ever since I started teaching here, so it's just something that's near and dear to my heart. I guess I want everybody to feel the same way that I do about working with Special Olympics, and we have an inclusive club here for Special Olympics that has almost 300 members,' said Aimee Ellison, a special education teacher at East Stroudsburg High School South.
The event helped raise nearly $13,000.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Boston Globe
17 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Mass. considers scrapping religious exemptions for vaccinations
Advertisement In Massachusetts, parents can write a letter stating that a vaccine conflicts with their 'sincerely held religious belief' in order to exempt their children from vaccination requirements needed to enroll in public schools. State Rep. Andy Vargas and State Sen. Edward Kennedy both Advocates who oppose the exemptions say that religious exceptions are being misused by parents who are hesitant about vaccinating their children. Advertisement 'It's definitely a general pattern of people abusing the exemption, especially since But parents across the state came to Beacon Hill to testify in support of religious exemptions at a hearing of the Legislature's Joint Committee on Public Health. They said exemptions were essential to their first amendment right to practice their religion and to honor the concept of informed consent. 'I'm curious why diversity, equity and inclusion is not being applied to those with sincerely held religious beliefs,' Lisa Ottaviano said while testifying at the hearing. Some speakers at the hearing said they were uncomfortable with the components of certain vaccines. 'We should not be forced into violating our moral conscience by injecting products developed from aborted fetuses such as the MMR, the varicella vaccines,' said Nicholas Kottenstette, a Catholic father of four from Sterling, Massachusetts. Vaccines don't contain fetal cells, Others testifying against the bill said they wanted to protect religious exemptions because they felt that accountability measures for vaccine manufacturers were insufficient. 'I started meeting more people whose children had reactions to vaccines that were adverse, so I started doing my own research and learnt a lot of concerning things like how pharmaceutical companies have legal protection against being sued,' Maureen Trettel, a grandmother from Milford said. Advertisement Similar bills have been filed in previous sessions, so the debate over religious exemptions for vaccines in Massachusetts has been going on since at least 2019, well before the COVID-19 pandemic that made vaccines a polarizing issue. The elevation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic, to U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services has drawn even more interest to the issue. Last week, Kennedy Logan Beyer, an aspiring pediatrician pursuing an MD/PhD degree in public health at Harvard, spoke in favor of eliminating religious exemptions. While volunteering at a Special Olympics event, Beyer spoke to a parent who told her that she was worried that vaccines caused autism. The mother told Beyer that she was planning to apply for a religious exemption because she was unsure about vaccinating her children. 'She told me that her family 'didn't really go to church' but you don't have to prove anything to get the exemption,' Beyer said. Beyer said that this incident made her concerned about growing vaccine hesitancy and inspired her to testify. 'At the hearing, so many parents said they just want to do what's best for their children … I love that instinct,' Beyer said, 'But I know that passing policies that help facilitate more kids getting vaccinated is really what can keep children safe.' Advertisement Harrison, mother of cancer-survivor Miranda, also understands the instinct of parents on the other side of the issue, even if she disagrees with them. In addition to Miranda, Harrison has twin six-year old boys who both have autism. 'I can know the grief and shock that parents experience when they find out their kid has autism. I get it,' Harrison said. 'But vaccines are not to blame ... autism is a result of Around 16,000 children in Massachusetts are unvaccinated without claiming an exemption — a group that the state describes as 'noncompliant students' in its documents. Many parents in opposition to the bills questioned why the bills were trained just on the 2,000 students who did have religious exemptions. 'I'm curious why the Legislature is targeting the small percentage of children with religious exemptions and ignoring the huge gap population,' said Ottaviano testifying at the hearing. Advocates for the bills said the new provisions that mandate that all schools must report vaccination numbers to the state's department of public health would address these noncompliant students as well. 'That's what the data reporting is about, we want to make sure that schools have accurate records,' Blair of Massachusetts Families for Vaccines said. 'If there is a gap … they should reach out to those students to find out why the records are not on file.' Speakers in favor of the bills were focused on eliminating religious exemptions in order to protect children who cannot be vaccinated due to medical reasons like allergies or problems with their immune systems. 'It's actually those people … that we're really doing this for, because they're the ones who depend on herd immunity,' Blair said. Advertisement Angela Mathew can be reached at


USA Today
3 days ago
- USA Today
Mel Reid surprises golfer with news that she qualified for 2026 Special Olympics USA Games
FRISCO, Texas – As LPGA players made the turn at the Fields Ranch East Course on Friday morning, retired player-turned-television-analyst Mel Reid was on a special assignment over by the 10th tee. Reid surprised 38-year-old Erika Johnson with the news that she'd qualified for the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games, representing Texas. 'Unbelievable achievement. You're going to have to get some Olympic rings on you or something,' said Reid, pulling up the sleeve of her shirt to reveal her own tattoo from the 2020 Games in Tokyo. Johnson, it turns out, already had two tattoos of her own and was game to add a third at Reid's invitation. 'It would be my honor to take you,' said a smiling Reid, an LPGA winner and Special Olympics ambassador. The golf portion of the USA Games will be held at Victory Links Golf Course in Blaine, Minnesota, June 20-26, the same week as the KPMG Women's PGA Championship at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska. Johnson came out to the KPMG Women's PGA in Frisco with her mom, Kim, and coach, Linda Walls. She first took up the game in high school and plays out of Woodbridge Golf Club in Wylie, Texas. While golf is her main sport, she began with the Special Olympics in 2002 and participates in basketball, bowling, flag football, floorball, golf, soccer, softball and volleyball. She also competed with the FC Dallas Special Olympics Unified Team. One of her tattoos is the FC Dallas shield and the other is a star. 'It means a lot,' said a grateful Johnson of heading to Minnesota. In March, Johnson flew to Italy to compete in floorball, which her mom said is like ice hockey but in tennis shoes and without the ice. Organized sports, she said, have given her daughter a strong community and boosted her confidence. 'She travels more than I do these days,' said Kim. 'She has really learned to know that she can stand on her own two feet.' After touring Golf Channel's set near the 10th tee, Johnson planned to take in more of the action at Fields Ranch East before heading to her job at the local movie theater, where she's worked for nearly 20 years. 'This is what it's about, isn't it?' said Reid. 'I've got a nephew with quite severe special needs, so it's very close to my heart. I just think they're more impressive than us, to be honest with you. … The way they just get on with stuff. Their fire, their grit, their strength. It's just something we can all learn from.'

Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Jaguars for a day: The 6th annual Special Olympics Florida Fantasy Camp
Signed, sealed, and delivered! Nearly 40 athletes with the Special Olympics became a part of the Jacksonville Jaguars' rookie class Wednesday afternoon. >>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<< Advertisement It's the mission behind the 6th annual Special Olympics Florida Fantasy Camp. The newly added members to the roster got to put pen to paper with Jaguars GM James Gladstone, take a tour of the Miller Electric Center, plus hit the practice field with the rest of the Jaguars Rookie Class. [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks] Action Sports Jax Alivia Tassely spent the day down at Jags headquarters as the new rookies were welcomed into the NFL. Watch Action Sports Jax Brent and Austen Show discussing the Jaguars' training camp dates here.