1. September 24, 2009
Dear Professor:
In follow up to June’s communication from Special Olympics about the online video contest
being held in collaboration with the University of Miami School of Communication’s Knight
Center of International Media, we’d like to inform you about some modifications and changes to
our original plan. As you know, the contest, originally scheduled for fall of 2009, will now be
extended through the spring of 2010.
For those who incorporated Special Olympics into your fall 2009 syllabus, we encourage you to
carry on and use this semester for students to create their contest entries as outlined
below. For those who were unable to tie-in the contest in to the plans for the fall, it is our hope
that by pushing the contest to the spring, you will be able to integrate the contest into the
spring curriculum and syllabus in order to maximize participation in the contest.
The competition will be open to college and university students currently enrolled in Journalism
and Communications Schools around the world. The categories of the contest will include video
and still photography. Cash prizes will be awarded to the first, second, and third place entrants
in each category as judged by Special Olympics and the Knight Center of International Media,
with final judgments made by a panel of industry leaders in the fields of advertising, television,
multimedia, journalism and photography.
The video category will award first, second and third place cash prizes for the following
categories:
Vignette - a maximum three minute piece that tells the story of an athlete, coach, family,
volunteer or anyone else involved in Special Olympics.
Public Service Announcement - a 30 or 60 second PSA that uses the Be a fan® messaging to
promote Special Olympics (Example 1, Background)
Music Video - a maximum three minute piece using music and visuals to tell a story about
Special Olympics and share and promote Special Olympics messaging
The photo category will award first, second and third place cash prizes for the following
categories:
Photo Essays – maximum 15 photos, each topic is a separate category of entry
- Tell a story of the impact of and/or need for Special Olympics
- Tell a story of a Special Olympics athlete
- Tell a story about a Special Olympics Competition
1133 19th Street, NW / Washington, DC 20036 USA / (202) 628-3630 / www.specialolympics.org

2. Single Photo – Individually submitted, entrants can use one photo from a photo essay submitted
simultaneously, but must submit specifically to the single photo category.
Prizes:
Cash prizes will be awarded to each winning project. Any sharing of prize money is left at the
discretion the project team.
For each category there will be a cash prize of:
1st place - $1,000
2nd place - $500
3rd place - $250
Official contest rules, the URL of the contest website and an announcement of the final judge’s
panel will be forthcoming, but we hope with the details included in this communication you will
be able to begin building this contest into your spring 2010 syllabus.
If you already built the contest into your fall 2009 syllabus, we encourage you to carry on and
use the semester for students to create their contest entries as outlined above.
Contest submissions can be submitted at any time. The official deadline for contest entry is
April 1, 2010.
If you are interested in participating, please respond to me at
pwheeler@specialolympics.org. We will continue to provide information to you in follow-up
emails.
Should you have any questions please contact me at pwheeler@specialolympics.org or
Professor Rich Beckman at rbeckman@miami.edu.
We look forward to your school and students joining Special Olympics and telling our powerful
stories of acceptance, empowerment, dignity, unity, courage, strength, confidence, respect and
fun to the world.
Thank you in advance for your support and interest in Special Olympics.
Sincerely,
Peter Wheeler
Chief Communications Officer
Special Olympics International
1133 19th Street, NW / Washington, DC 20036 USA / (202) 628-3630 / www.specialolympics.org