Bronx, NY] – Extreme athlete and Purple Heart and Bronze Star recipient James (Jim) Meeks and the four-time New York State Champions, Ossining Pride girls basketball team helped celebrate the achievements of more than 30 student athletes with disabilities (ages 9-18) at the New York Institute for Special Education’s annual Sports Awards ceremony on Thursday, May 26.
The event recognized students’ excellence in such sports as swimming, track and field, cheerleading, bowling, basketball, wrestling and goalball.
Jim Meeks addresses the athletes, their families and faculty in attendance at the New York Institute for Special Education’s annual Sports Award Ceremony on Thursday, May 26. (Photo Credit: James Rivera)
Prior to the awards ceremony, Pride coach Dan Ricci and players led a basketball clinic that left the Institute’s children impressed with the team’s skills and eager to participate. The members of the team later helped distribute trophies to all of the Institute’s student athletes during the ceremony.
The featured speaker for the awards, Jim Meeks, shared with the children inspiring stories of his experiences as an athlete and leader. He is a member of TeamExtreme, a group of ordinary people with a passion for making a difference in the lives of others by pushing their physical limits in a variety of extreme athletic events to raise money for the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, which provides services for wounded heroes in uniform.
Jim is also President and CEO of green energy solutions company MOVE Systems and a combat veteran: serving two tours in Iraq as an armor officer with the US Army and receiving a Purple Heart and Bronze Star. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University and received an MBA in global management from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
The New York Institute for Special Education (www.nyise.org), founded in 1831 as The New York Institute for the Education of the Blind, is one of the oldest and most respected schools in the nation that provides specialized services for children with disabilities. Located in the Bronx since 1924, NYISE provides quality programs for more than 300 students from New York City’s five boroughs, Westchester County and upstate New York, including more than 120 children from the Bronx, ages 3 to 5, who attend its preschool.
Posted on May 27 2016 in News