Sarah Greider honored for volunteer service with Special Olympics Family Festival

MATTOON — The annual Special Olympics Family Festival has been providing a parade, carnival games, music and other fun activities for area athletes for 42 years.

Volunteer Sarah Greider, senior manager for internal communications for Fidium (formerly Consolidated Communications), has played an active part in those festivities for 25 of those years and counting.

Her service with the Special Olympics Family Festival continued on Saturday as Greider's roles included staffing the information tent at the entrance to the carnival midway. She also helped with photographing and filming the opening ceremony, one of her favorite events there.

"You can hear the crowd cheer when the torch is lit and it is such a happy time," Greider said shortly afterward.

Greider was honored this spring with the Special Olympics Midge McDowell Lifetime Achievement Award for her hard work and dedication to the Family Festival.

The award announcement noted that Greider works year-round on projects for the festival, including marketing, theme design, promotions, communications, publicity and media interviews, social media and securing critical sponsorships that fund the event.

Vanessa Duncan, Region I assistant director of development for Special Olympics Illinois, said in the announcement that Duncan is dedicated to Special Olympics athletes, devoting her time and talents for the past 25 years to bring joy to their lives.

“Sarah goes above and beyond just volunteering for the Eastern Illinois University Spring Games and Special Olympics Family Festival and, in fact, travels long distances to volunteer at other Special Olympics Region I events, including bowling competitions, volleyball tournaments and the golf outing," Duncan said.

The Midge McDowell Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes individuals who have made significant, long-term contributions to Special Olympics. The honor is named for the late local director of Special Olympics Illinois and co-founder of the Family Festival. The award was first presented in 2016.

Greider is one of three individuals from the former Consolidated Communications who have received the honor. The other two are SOFF co-founder and late CCI CEO Richard Lumpkin, and Celeste Webb.

On Saturday, Webb took the stage once again to lead the Special Olympics athletes in enthusiastically dancing to "YMCA," "The Locomotion," and other favorite songs.

"We do this every year and it's so much fun, just like Christmas!" Webb exclaimed from the stage.

Bob Udell, president and chief executive officer of Fidium, was also among the many volunteers helping this year. He noted that team included employees from partner organizations First Mid Bank & Trust and Sarah Bush Lincoln, students from EIU and Lake Land, and many other volunteers. 

Udell said the event has been blessed over the years to have good weather, including on Saturday. He said it feels like co-founder Lumpkin is still looking out for the festival from above.

"The Family Festival is a magical event, filled with joy and incredible anticipation of the athletes," Udell said in the award announcement. "The event is a testament to the power of community, and Sarah has been at its heart for 25 years."

Greider said receiving the award is especially meaningful to her because it is named after McDowell, who helped create the Family Festival in 1984 with Consolidated's Lumpkin. She knew both of them through her work at Consolidated and her volunteer service with the Special Olympics.

“I’m proud to work for the company that created SOFF more than 40 years ago and continues to provide opportunities for employees to volunteer," Greider said. "Although Midge and Dick have passed away, their legacy lives on through this event and the thousands of volunteers.”

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