Team MDO

Mission

“Deaf Youth Sports Festival (MDO) is a program, organized to challenge Deaf/Hard of Hearing Youth to discover their potential, through sporting competitions and directed activities with their peers.  Consequently, Deaf/Hard of Hearing Youth will learn valuable communication and social skills to enhance their abilities to become proactive members in their communities.”   MDO Core Committee of Directors October, 1994

History

It all started with 7 deaf youngsters in the parking lot of St. Augustine Church in Louisville, KY.  Since then, every summer the deaf community has been turning quickly to prepare for the Deaf Youth Sports Festival better known as MDO.  Work on the event has always been special, and the dedicated MDO crew of committee members and volunteers has always been determined to work practically non-stop to make every year the very best.  With each passing year, a record is always broken, whether that record is the number of participants (295 was the highest!), the number of volunteers 350, the number of states, schools and many more. Records are also shattered in sport as the week’s competition continues.  Participants always meet the challenges put to them in each of the various events.  Under their coaches’ watchful eyes, the children not only strive to win but learn how to play the games, how to support each other and how to work together as a team.  In recent years, USADSF scouts have been present at the games. These folks come from various parts of the country to see the young people involved in all of the sports competitions and to look for talent that might possible carry MDO participants to the Deaflympics of USADSF in the future.

We have been fortunate enough to have dedicated volunteers with us to schedule special sessions with participants, wherein rules and special techniques for several games could be taught, so that the children might take home with them not only medals and fond memories but increased knowledge and skill as well. We look forward to the next decade and see more fun, more challenge, new faces, faces we have come to know and to love from years past, and a lot of love. Because that’s what the bottom line is in the planning, preparing, and the presenting of a MDO. Without love, there would never have been the first annual MDO. As we stand together looking at the future of MDO, we may be uncertain of many things, but we are sure that we will never run short of love. What is the secret of MDO’s success? There is no other word than magic. And where is the magic? Check out the kids’ faces…its right there.