For Immediate Release: The Harvard Law School Project on Disability (HPOD) will bestow its fifth annual HPOD Award for the Betterment of Humanity

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

AUGUST 31, 2018

CONTACT:

Juliet Bowler | jbowler@law.harvard.edu | 617-495-3142

 

 

The Harvard Law School Project on Disability (HPOD) will bestow its fifth annual HPOD Award for the Betterment of Humanity to Special Olympics on the occasion of Special Olympics’ 50th anniversary.

 

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

 

 

WHAT: The Harvard Law School Project on Disability (HPOD) will bestow its fifth annual HPOD Award for the Betterment of Humanity to Special Olympics on the occasion of Special Olympics’ 50th anniversary, with special guests Special Olympics International Board Chairman Dr. Timothy Shriver and Melissa Joy Reilly, Special Olympics Global Messenger and a board member of Special Olympics Massachusetts.

 

WHEN: Monday, September 17, 2018, 12 noon

 

WHERE: Harvard Law School, Austin Hall, Room 101, Cambridge, MA 02138

 

WEBSITE: http://hpod.law.harvard.edu/

 

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

 

CAMBRIDGE, MA (August 31, 2018) -The Harvard Law School Project on Disability (HPOD) will bestow its fifth annual HPOD Award for the Betterment of Humanity to Special Olympics on the occasion of Special Olympics’ 50th anniversary.

 

Founded in 1968 by Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Special Olympics works in over 170 countries to empower people with intellectual disabilities for the benefit of all people, all without fee charges to the participants.

 

Special Olympics embodies the transformative power of sports. Today more than 6 million athletes and Unified Sports teammates experience the joy of participating in Special Olympics sporting events, thousands of which take place every day of the year across the globe. Special Olympics also offers a growing array of health, educational, and other programs to address the stigma and discrimination that persons with an intellectual disability face. In so doing, the organization seeks to educate the broader public about the talent and gifts of individuals with an intellectual disability and the ways in which genuine inclusion benefits all.

 

Special Olympics Massachusetts athlete Melissa Joy Reilly and Special Olympics International Board Chairman Dr. Timothy Shriver will receive the HPOD Award at Harvard Law School (Austin Hall East) on Monday, September 17 at noon on behalf of Special Olympics. Melissa Reilly is an avid swimmer, skier, and cyclist who was a member of the Special Olympics USA delegation in World Winter Games in Japan (2005) and Korea (2013), and now works in the office of Massachusetts State Senator Jamie Eldridge and the Learning Program of Boston. In her “spare time,” she is a Special Olympics Global Messenger and a board member of Special Olympics Massachusetts, which this year is also celebrating its 50th anniversary.

 

Tim Shriver is a visionary educational leader, best-selling author of “Fully Alive - Discovering What Matters Most,” and the producer of four films. Educated at Yale, the Catholic University of America, and the University of Connecticut, he assumed leadership of Special Olympics International in 1996. He is the recipient of seven honorary degrees and several other awards.

 

Professor William Alford, who is Chair of HPOD and Lead Director of Special Olympics International, and Professor Michael Stein, who is HPOD Executive Director, will present the award on behalf of HPOD. “Special Olympics every day works hard and works wonderfully to make the world more inclusive and better for us all,” said Alford. “What a privilege it is to be able to recognize the splendid work of its athletes, staff and volunteers.”

 

Previous recipients of the HPOD Award include Justice Albie Sachs of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, Justice Rosalie Abella of the Supreme Court of Canada, Ambassador Luis Gallegos of Ecuador, Professor Gary Siperstein of the University of Massachusetts and Professor Han Dayuan, Former Dean of Renmin University of China Law School.

 

The ceremony is open to the public and a box lunch will be served.

 

For questions, please contact Juliet Bowler at jbowler@law.harvard.edu.