Friends share love of swimming, helping others Teens coach Special Olympics athletes BY LAYLI WHYTE Staff Writer SCOTT PILLING staff The Friends of Special Children Special Olympics Team is training for the games held at The College of New Jersey in Ewing. Ocean Township — About a dozen years ago, two little girls in kindergarten had no idea that they would one day make a difference in the lives of some very special people. Lauren Sharkey and Marisa McGuire, both now 17 and still living on the same Fair Haven street, have spent the last four years as volunteer swim coaches working with athletes preparing to compete in the Special Olympics. SCOTT PILLING staff Marie Ferrari comes up for air during her warm-up laps at the JCC of Ocean Township. She is one of the members of the Friends of Special Children swim team. The teens began their involvement when they were in the eighth grade and helped with a skiing program for special-needs skiers at Mountain Creek. After that, they found a way to combine their shared love of swimming with the joy they found working with Special Olympics athletes. In addition to being co-captains for their swim team at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School, Lauren and Marisa began coaching for a Special Olympics swim team. With the help of Lauren’s mother, Linda, the friends got in touch with Marylin Koburn, who heads the Friends of Special Children Special Olympics team. “I first started Friends of Special Children 26 years ago,” said Koburn recently. “I came from Connecticut, and I met Linda Sharkey and Joanne Hunt through the Monmouth County Special Population Program. Can you imagine that Linda has a daughter who is fulfilling our dream?” Koburn began the program for her son, Jerry, who is disabled. Every Wednesday at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Monmouth County, Ocean Township, Lauren and Marisa spend the evening coaching the 11 members of the Friends of Special Children team, many of whom have Down syndrome. “I never thought when I started doing this that I would become so attached to each and every one of my swimmers,” said Marisa. She has been swimming competitively since the seventh grade with the Monmouth Barracudas, who practice every day at the JCC. Lauren said she began swimming competitively in the fifth grade, also with the Barracudas, but stopped once she reached high school and joined the school team. The girls led the RFH swim team in a 13-0 season this year, and they credit their work with the Friends of Special Children team with helping them advance their own swimming skills. “We use what our coaches tell us when we’re coaching them,” said Marisa. “And it makes me understand more about what our coaches tell us,” said Lauren. The two girls, who will be graduating from high school this summer, are enthusiastic about their work with the Special Olympics athletes. “Working with these people,” said Marisa, “has taught me so much about being a more happy and healthy individual.” “Exactly,” said Lauren. “They compete, but they still have fun. It’s such a happy environment.” “We can’t wait for Wednesday so we can come here,” said Marisa, while Lauren nodded in agreement. Nancy Sanok, Point Pleasant, has brought her 29-year-old daughter, Tracy, to the community center on Wednesdays for the past six years. “The girls are great coaches,” she said. “They are just marvelous and so hands-on.” Koburn said that if it were not for Lauren and Marisa, she would not be able to run the type of program she runs. “Without them,” Koburn said, “we wouldn’t survive.” Marisa said that after she graduates from high school, she will attend the University of Colorado at Boulder. “There’s a large Special Olympics program out there,” she said, adding that she wants to be able to keep doing this work. Lauren said she is not yet certain where she will be attending college, but she does know that she wants to stay involved with a similar program. Lauren and Marisa agree it’s not just the good feeling they get from helping the athletes, but it is the individuals they have been working with so closely over the past three years who make it so worthwhile. “They are such great people,” said Marisa. The volunteer coaches are looking forward to traveling with the team to the Special Olympics, which will be held this summer at The College of New Jersey in Ewing.