Madison and Daniel Riker, in partnership with Carrie White and the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council, hosted a Special Olympics Mississippi Area 4 event on Wednesday, Sept. 17 at the Old Armory Pavilion.
“Carrie White, who handles our fundraising and marketing, works for the (Yoknapatawpha) Art Council, and I would just like to give a huge shout-out to them (YAC) because they let us use the Armory Pavilion for free today,” Madison Riker said. “They’ve been wonderful throughout this whole thing. The Yoknapatawpha Art Council has been a huge sponsor of us.”
Area 4 encompasses Lafayette County and the surrounding Calhoun, Grenada and Yalobusha counties. The Rikers invite group homes and schools from surrounding areas to partake in several events throughout the year, including a track and field event in the spring which attracts around 500 participants annually.
Bocce is one of the favorite games at the track and field event each year, so the Rikers decided to host a bocce match this fall. Over 70 participants took part.
Bocce is played on a 10-by-30-foot court. The pallino ball is placed at the center of the court. In the simplified version played at the event, there are four players in each corner of the court. All four receive a weighted bocce ball, which they toss underhanded toward the pallino ball.
Whoever lands their ball closest to the pallino ball gets a point. The first player who reaches eight points wins. If the 20-minute timer expires before any player has reached eight, the player with the highest score wins.
Due to complications with COVID-19, Special Olympics events were unable to take place in Oxford in recent years. The Rikers aimed to change that. With help from the original director of the Special Olympics, they were able to organize their first event. Since then, their events have been quite successful.
“We’ve got previous history with the Special Olympics,” Daniel Riker said. “I helped out in high school. So did (Madison). I’ve got a brother with special needs, so all this kind of hits home for me at the end of the day.”
The Rikers help out with the Special Olympics events in their free time. Daniel Riker is from Tuscaloosa, Ala., and works at the Lafayette County Sheriff’s Department as a sheriff’s deputy. He is also the assistant coach of Ole Miss’s Division III club hockey team.
Madison Riker works in the theater department on campus as the financial director and serves on the board of directors for Theatre Oxford. Born and raised in Oxford, she has participated in the Special Olympics for many years and has built close relationships with several athletes.
When the Special Olympics extended her and Daniel the opportunity to host their own events, they could not turn down the offer.
“I know how big this is for these athletes,” Madison Riker said. “This is like their SEC college football.”
The Special Olympics is an entirely nonprofit and volunteer-based organization. One of Madison’s biggest goals was to involve as many university organizations in the Special Olympics as possible.
For this event, volunteers from groups such as the Kappa Alpha fraternity and the Ole Miss Men’s Club Hockey Team came out to support and serve the community. Other sororities and fraternities help make up the volunteer base, as does Oxford ROTC, who sent 25 cadets to the event under Sergeant Jeremy Wheeler.
Three volunteers and two ROTC cadets were assigned to each bocce court. The smiles on the athletes’s faces were wide and bright, and so were the volunteer’s smiles.
“(The student volunteers) are absolutely wonderful,” said Madison. “They actually reach out to me before I have a chance to reach out to them, because they want to get involved … It’s absolutely wonderful, and they’re just on top of everything. They really help us run our games.”
The success of Wednesday’s bocce event highlights not only the dedication of Madison and Daniel Riker, but also the strength of community partnership across Oxford and surrounding counties. With the support of the Yoknapatawpha Art Council, university organizations and countless volunteers, the Special Olympics continues to grow, offering athletes the chance to showcase their skills and experience the joy of competition.
What began as a desire to fill a gap in the fall season has now become a testament to the power of teamwork, compassion and local pride. Through the Special Olympics, the Rikers continue to ensure that these athletes receive the same excitement, support and celebration that would spring from any major sporting event.
