Daisy Elementary recognized by South Carolina Special Olympics as Unified Champion School

HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WMBF) -Kids want to have fun, that tends to be the case, no matter what they look like, or where they come from.

In Horry County, the South Carolina Special Olympics named Daisy Elementary a Unified Champion school, where a new program allows students to come together and spend time with others who may have intellectual or physical disabilities.

The saying goes: never judge a book by its cover.

Fifth graders at Daisy Elementary have already learned that lesson.

“There’s kids that make fun of these kids and I don’t know why, there’s nothing wrong with them, they’re just unique in their own way,” said Kayla McGuire, a Daisy Elementary student.

Kayla is a peer mentor for the Buddy Club in the Unified Champions program. In the program, students are chosen by teachers to be buddies.

“They’re peer leaders, so they show the rest of the school that this is how we interact with everybody, that we are accepting of everybody, that we include everybody, that daisy is one big family,” said Betsy Faulk, Daisy Elementary’s physical education teacher.

Tuesday was their first field trip since the start of the pandemic.

Kayla says the program has allowed her to open up over the past month.

“I was shy when I first came here, but it’s very fun because when you’re with these kids they make you laugh and they make you happy, and it’s fun to see they can do what they want and people not judging them.”

It’s a sight that makes a lot of folks happy, including the supervisors.

“This warms my heart, and the whole idea behind the unified champion schools is acceptance of any and everybody, everybody’s different,” said Faulk.

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