(upbeat music) - Hi, I am Jacqui Tricarico, Senior Correspondent for One-on-One and so pleased to be joined now by Heather Andersen, the President and CEO of Special Olympics New Jersey, as well as Mike Stigers, who's the President and CEO of Wakefern Food Corporation.

It's so great to have you both with us.

- Great to be here, Jacqui.

- Good to be here.

- Well, Heather, I wanna start with you because the Special Olympics of New Jersey has been present here in the state, I think since the 1960s.

First, for people who don't know, tell us a little bit about the organization and how it's really grown and evolved over the years.

- Sure, our core is a sport.

We're a sport organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities.

And we have been around since the late 1960s in New Jersey.

We celebrated our 50th anniversary a few years ago, and really as an organization, we offer 22 sports.

Everything we do is free of charge due to the generosity of individuals in New Jersey, donors, corporations like ShopRite, Wakefern.

So everything we do is free, but really, it's more than sport.

It brings people together, it brings families together.

It brings the New Jersey community together to celebrate the abilities of our athletes.

We don't focus on disabilities, and it's really pure joy when you come to one of our events because it really... We always say, "Just come once, just come once."

So we have over 20,000 athletes that are registered in New Jersey alone, anybody from the age two up to 72.

So it's a lifetime organization for not only our athletes, but the families.

- Mike, so out of those 50 years, about 40 of them, Wakefern and ShopRite has been involved.

Tell us why you and your colleagues continue to be a really significant part of Special Olympics New Jersey.

- You said it right there.

Come once and you've got it.

You look at the athletes, some of those athletes are our teammates who work in our stores.

They're our neighbors, they're the communities we serve and ShopRite, we're all family owned.

Every one of our stores, it's under the wake front umbrella, but all shop rights are owned by a family and a family member.

And those families support the communities they serve.

And for us to be able to support Heather in what her and her team does on a daily basis at the summer games is just absolutely incredible, but we're there because that's where our hearts are.

Our hearts are with the communities, and it all starts with the athletes and all the courage, the courage that those athletes put forward every single day and then to honor them at their Olympics is just really something special.

- You touched upon it a little bit, Mike, but can you elaborate more on the job opportunities that you're also creating for some of those athletes and how that synergy between ShopRite and the Special Olympics really helps provide those opportunities?

- My gosh, absolutely.

Grocery stores are the center point of a community, and the grocery store, the local ShopRite store, serves those communities to which they serve and those are our teammates with perhaps have special needs or don't have special needs, but we need good, good solid, hardworking teammates, and we're very, very proud of our athletes who work with others organization, who also work in our stores, and we're able to provide strong, strong employment opportunities for those teammates.

- That's incredible, Heather, I know there are really events and things happening all year round all throughout the state.

I saw something more recently called Pooling for a Cause.

It was presented by United Airlines at the Newark Airport.

Tell us a little bit about that, because it was really unique and I know it raised a lot of money for what you all are doing.

- So, United Airlines has been a long-term partner of ours, just like ShopRite, Wakefern, and they're part of our family and fabric of the organization.

But we have teams of 20 pulling a 737, 12 feet, and we have the fastest pole and the lowest combined weight pole.

So it's been a staple event for ours in New Jersey for many years, and it's the only day of the year you get to be out on the tarmac at the Newark Airport, really without getting arrested.

And you get to be part of an event to pull the plane.

And so it's... And we have athletes out there pulling the plane along with maybe where they work, but we raised probably over $100,000 a couple of weeks ago for that event.

And so again, it's one of those events come once and you're kind of hooked, so.

- It sounds incredible and what a sight to see I'm sure for everybody that was involved that day.

Mike, being a part of this for so long, what's one of your most favorite memories of being at some of these events and seeing these athletes and the joy that it brings so many people?

- The greatest part is when you're there, you're at the event.

You know that one of your teammates is participating, you go watch the teammate and you just watch the sheer excitement on their face that they finish the event.

They run up to me afterwards and show us their badges and their medals, the pride that's on their face, the sense of accomplishment that they feel, the courage and the confidence that gives them to the teammates is incredible.

But then you look at their family and the pride the family has, it truly brings the full community together.

And that is, by far, Renee, my wife, we enjoy this so much.

We go out every year.

We served over 15,000 meals last year on that weekend.

So we get just literally hundreds of our teammates out helping support the athletes and the Special Olympics event.

But then it's just to be there with our teammates, their families, and all of us just giving back to the community, - Heather, there's so much to look forward to, but in 2026, what are we gonna be seeing?

What are some really fun events that people can check out that are happening in 2026 for the Special Olympics of New Jersey?

- Well people ask me when the next event is, and I'll tell you, it's probably in about 15 minutes because we have things going around across the state every day, everywhere in the communities.

We're in every county at a very local level up to our statewide games and events, every weekend there's something going on.

So the best thing I would say is to check out our website, SONJ.org for a full list of events.

But we've got an exciting year coming up in 2026.

Above and beyond, we have Team New Jersey representing our great state at the Special Olympics USA games in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

So we have about 100 athletes and coaches and team will be flying out to Minneapolis later in June to represent our state and we have 12 sports that we'll be representing there so we're so excited for them and their families.

70% of the team has never been to a USA games before.

So it's just the excitement is brewing already on top of all the other events that we have.

So lots of good things happening and again, I just encourage everybody to check us out, come once and you'll come back.

- Creating opportunities, such incredible opportunities and experiences for so many.

And finally, Heather, someone's watching and wondering how they can get involved with your organization.

What's the best way to do that?

- They'd go to our website.

We can't do what we do without thousands of volunteers across the state.

We need volunteer coaches, we need volunteers that will help out at events on a weekend to help run special events.

I mean, ShopRite, Wakefern, 500 employees and their families come out every year to cook and serve food with us at summer games.

So it's like an army of humanity across the state with the generosity of our volunteers.

So if you want to get involved or you have a family member or you know somebody that could benefit from our programming, again, everything is on our website and the contact information, but sometimes we talk about we're the best kept secret, even though we're over 55 years old.

But just come once, get involved, you'll never regret it.

And there's so many good things that this mission does that I think can touch the lives of thousands of New Jerseyans.

- I'm glad we could just give a little spotlight of some of the incredible work that's being done.

Thank you both Heather and Mike for joining us.

We really appreciate it.

- Thank you.

- Thank you - For Steve Adubato and myself, thanks for watching.

We'll see you next time.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by Delta Dental of New Jersey.

The Russell Berrie Foundation.

Holy Name.

Valley Bank.

Johnson & Johnson.

NJM Insurance Group.

United Airlines.

Newark Board of Education.

And by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Promotional support provided by BestofNJ.com.

And by New Jersey Monthly.