Toot's and the Sheriff's Office team up for the Special Olympics!

Mar 23, 2014 at 07:45 pm by bryan


Enjoy chicken wings and onion rings during the “Wings and Rings” fundraiser for Special Olympics from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 25 at Toot’s South at 2992-C South Church St.

Rutherford County School Resource Officers will visit with diners and ask for donations for the Special Olympics annual Field and Track Meet. Funds raised will pay transportation costs for about 450 developmentally challenged children and adults to compete in the games April 10 at MTSU.

The student athletes from Rutherford County Schools and Murfreesboro City Schools, along with adults from Journeys in Community Living and Stones River Center, will compete in the softball throw, standing long jump, running long jump, 50-meter dash, 100-meter dash, 25-meter developmental walk for athletes whose physical liabilities prevent them from walking, and a 25-meter wheelchair race.

Special Olympics co-chair John Harris said Special Olympics allows the students and adults to show they can participate and be athletes on this particular day.

Toot’s South General Manager Falan Gil said the restaurant will feature a 10 wings and order of onion rings special for the event.

“It makes everyone so eager to work,” Gil said of the Wings and Rings “It’s an exciting experience for everyone, including customers, employees, volunteers and the kitchen staff has a blast with the energy in this place. The roof is almost coming off. Everyone is so cheerful and just in a great mood.”

Co-chair Lou Paschall said Special Olympics do not charge the athletes to compete in the Field and Track meet. The “Wings and Rings” fund-raiser at Toot’s helps pay for the track and field meet expenses.

At the fund-raiser, envelopes will be placed on the tables for donations. SROs will visit diners and explain the money collected supports Rutherford County athletes.

The day of the meet, law enforcement officers from Rutherford County will run the Special Olympics torch from Central Magnet School to MTSU where the athletes will be introduced during a walk around the track.  MTSU coaches and athletes run the Special Olympics.

Both Harris and Paschall said they were grateful to Toot’s owner Wade Hays and his staff for participating in the fund-raiser, Sheriff Robert Arnold and the SROs who staff the event and diners who support Special Olympians.

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