Behind the Scenes at the Special Olympics

ABC News on Campus reporter Morgan Demmel blogs: At a time when most college campuses are quiet and calm, students and employees of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln were working overtime as the host of the 2010 Special Olympics. The university offered up its dorms, dining halls and facilities to the more than 30,000 people participating in the games. 
Teams from 48 states and Washington D.C. competed in basketball, soccer, softball, volleyball and nine other sports at venues at UNL and across the city of Lincoln. In addition to the many UNL students and staff members who volunteered at the events, employees in several departments on campus clocked extra hours this week to ensure everything ran smoothly with the games that started Monday and finished today.
Beginning at 4 a.m. each day, University Dining Service employees packed sandwiches, potato salad, cookies and chips into boxed lunches for athletes competing at the 13 venues. Still, food services manager and executive chef Jessica Dahlgren said she didn't heard any grumbling from her staff. “They come in, we give them some coffee and they go to work,” she said.
Athletes, coaches and officials stayed in residence halls on the campus, which made for quite a housing operation. Conference services and event manager Tony Rathgeber said it’s the largest group — close to 4,000 people — UNL has ever hosted for a summer conference.
“One of the key components [in choosing a host city] was finding a place where this large number of people could be housed,” Rathgeber said.  
The athletes and coaches have had a positive experience on UNL’s campus. A bocce coach from Alabama said the residence hall staff was very helpful.
“They were very accommodating and made some changes we needed before we had to ask,” Steve Murphy said after the dining hall staff adjusted the serving lines to allow people to move through the lines more quickly.
Nick Hayes, an athlete who competed with Ohio’s softball team, said he felt welcomed by everyone on campus, especially within the residence and dining halls.
The university also offered its campus athletic facilities for use throughout the week. Butch Hug, the associate athletic director for facilities and events, said hosting the events are a great opportunity for UNL.
“Probably at least 90-plus percent of these people have never been to Nebraska,” he said. 
UNL’s College of Journalism and Mass Communications was temporarily transformed into media headquarters for the games. More than 50 students provided content for a multimedia website and a nightly television broadcast available to media outlets across the country.  At the same time, advertising and public relations students helped Special Olympics staff promote the games using social media.
Associate professor of broadcasting Barney McCoy said the students are gaining a much better understanding of live reporting for a large sporting event.
Senior advertising student Kaitlin Arntz added, “I just got to jump right in and learn on the job.”