Special Olympics Southern California athletes Patricia and Pepe pause for a photo with Amy Walker, a Mattel® employee (red shirt), and her boyfriend, Ryan Gleason, who volunteered at the 2006 Special Olympics Southern California Winter Championships. In 2005 Mattel launched a partnership with Special Olympics that included the launch of Team Mattel, a stellar example of employee volunteerism — thousands of Mattel employees around the world dedicate their time and energy to ensuring local Special Olympic events are meaningful experiences. Learn more about Amy Walker's personal experience in the "Meet our Volunteers" section of this Web site. [Photo by Deborah Dicochea] In 1968, Special Olympics invited the world to let go of limiting views, prejudices and misconceptions about people with intellectual disabilities and embrace the idea that they can be respected, valued, contributing members of society. Today, the Special Olympics movement includes more than 2.25 million athletes who train and compete in 30 sports through more than 200 Programs in more than 180 countries around the world. Despite that growth, the Special Olympics movement touches just a small percentage of the estimated 190 million people around the world with intellectual disabilities. Individual donors, corporate partners and many others make it possible for Special Olympics to offer children and adults with intellectual disabilities the opportunity to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage and experience joy through participation in the program.