The Special Olympics mission statement: “Let me win, but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt.”

That was how the Fannin County Special Olympics basketball event began Friday, Jan. 31, at the Fannin County Recreation Complex. The mission statement is read and said by participants and volunteers before every Special Olympics event in the country.

Friday’s event featured nearly 100 athletes ranging from pre-K to their early 70s. The athletes came from Blue Ridge Elementary, West Fannin Elementary, East Fannin Elementary, Fannin County Middle, Fannin County High, and the Mineral Springs Center.

Gini Bell, assistant principal at Blue Ridge Elementary and head of the Fannin County Special Olympics, said the basketball event was the first in the program’s history that spans more than a decade.

The event was originally scheduled for December, but due to school system being closed because of inclement weather, the event was moved to January.

Bell said the support from the community for the Special Olympics has always been outstanding.

“The community has been absolutely amazing,” Bell said. “Our community is awesome. With having to move the event from December to January, people were really flexible and understanding and did whatever had to be done to make it happen.”

Bell said some of the program’s biggest sponsors are the Blue Ridge Kiwanis Club and Faith Presbyterian Church.

“Our sponsors help us in whatever way they can,” Bell said. “They always show up with smiles on faces ready to whatever we need.”

Bell said the Fannin County Recreation Department has also been helpful and supportive.

“When we first planned for the last track-and-field event, we were going to hold it at the high school,” Bell said. “But rain forced us to move it inside. The high school doesn’t have the right facilities for that, so the Recreation Department stepped in and made it happen. (Recreation Director) Eddie O’Neal and his whole staff have just been amazing to us.”

Bell said, in addition to track-and-field and basketball, the program will be holding a softball event in the fall, also at the recreation department.

For more pictures of the event, visit the TeamFYNSports Facebook page.