Disability sport · coaching · operations · advocacy

Special Olympics became one of the longest-running institutions in the story.

Special Olympics became one of the longest-running institutions in the record through coaching, event operations, travel, advocacy and the practical economics of keeping opportunities available.

Special Olympics team group gathered during the 2006 National Games

2006 National Games

2006 National Games photographs

Archive source recovery: Randall recalls a contemporaneous Chico Enterprise-Record feature about the 2006 delegation, with a title approximately “Stepping Up to the National Plate.” The original clipping/direct publisher record remains to be reattached rather than guessed at. Iowa State Daily’s 2006 Games archive →

Opening-ceremony and first-USA-Games archive →

Team, athlete, coach and event photographs from the 2006 Special Olympics National Games.

Randall Stone with athlete Norman at the 2006 Special Olympics USA National Games

2006 USA National Games

Randall Stone with athlete Norman during the 2006 Special Olympics USA National Games at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. Stone served as a Northern California Athletics coach.

Earlier years

The archive reaches back well before elected office.

Randall and Krista Stone were already active in Special Olympics before Randall’s elected service. The 1997 and 2008 photographs establish the earlier chronology.

Krista and Randall Stone together at a Special Olympics Summer Games event in 1997
Randall and Krista Stone at the Special Olympics Summer Games, 1997.
Krista and Randall Stone together in Special Olympics Butte County shirts in June 2008
Randall and Krista Stone at Special Olympics Butte County, June 2008.

Two separate stories

The Chico State basketball dispute and the Cami Anderson track meet are not the same event.

2012 Chico State basketball tournament

Contemporary reporting documents the cancellation of the 40th annual tournament, roughly 400 athletes, a dramatic facility-fee increase and a booking/process failure. Randall publicly challenged the decision. A later university memorandum acknowledged the booking error, incorrect initial fee and process changes.

Chico News & Review → SOBC Basketball Monday video →

President Zingg memorandum →

Cami Anderson Memorial School Site Track Meet

The school-site meet belongs to a different history: inclusive school athletics, a relationship with Cami Anderson and the work of keeping the event alive. Special Olympics and personal endurance-sport photographs are cataloged separately.

Current BCOE event page →

Watch “School Site Track” →

Randall Stone with athlete Norman at the 2006 Special Olympics USA National Games in Ames Iowa
Randall Stone with athlete Norman at the first Special Olympics USA National Games in Ames, Iowa, July 2006.
Northern California Special Olympics delegation at the 2006 USA National Games track and field venue
Northern California delegation at the 2006 Special Olympics USA National Games track and field venue in Ames, Iowa.
Northern California Special Olympics delegation gathered on steps during the 2006 USA National Games
Northern California delegation during the 2006 Special Olympics USA National Games in Ames, Iowa.
Special Olympics track and field practice in Chico
Special Olympics track-and-field practice in Chico. Date pending.
Randall Stone speaking at the Law Enforcement Torch Run supporting Special Olympics Butte County in Chico

Law Enforcement Torch Run

Sixteen years of service did not fit neatly into one title.

Randall’s Special Olympics Butte County service spanned roughly sixteen years, including about eight years as Executive Director as well as coaching, operations, fundraising and event work. The Law Enforcement Torch Run photograph belongs in that longer chronology rather than as a one-off podium appearance.

The service tapered off only after children made the old volunteer schedule and insurance requirements increasingly incompatible with family life. That same family-life transition ended other long-running civic commitments in the household, including Krista Stone’s nearly two decades of League of Women Voters board service.