Special Olympics Launches Online Fan Community Powered By KickApps

Website Brings Together Athletes, Supporters andFans of the Movement From Around the World

NEW YORK, February 4, 2009 –Special Olympics and KickApps (www.kickapps.com), the industry’s leading on-demand social media, video player and widget platform, today announced the launch of a new online Fan Community. Built on the KickApps platform, the online Fan Community connects people who are passionate about building a more accepting and inclusive world and enables them to share their stories and celebrate the spirit of the Special Olympics.

“Special Olympics has a very powerful ability to unite people regardless of geographical, cultural, religious or political barriers,” said Peter Wheeler, chief communications officer for Special Olympics. “Our athletes’ enthusiasm and courage is at the core of our movement and it’s through them and through sport that we all come together to form communities of acceptance and dignity that value all human beings, including those with intellectual disabilities. Our new Fan Community powered by KickApps allows anyone who is a fan of dignity, acceptance and the human race to inspire one another and share their contagious enthusiasm across the globe.”

The Fan Community was designed by Perfect Sense Digital and built by the KickApps Client Solutions team. The website features a social network where members can create an online profile about themselves, friend other members of the community, upload blogs, photos and videos, engage in conversations with other members on message boards, and comment, rate and tag content that has been created and uploaded by other members. Additionally, members can easily share community content, and spread awareness, with family and friends on any website, major social networks and blogs.

“The social media industry has a lot to offer advocacy organizations, and these organizations have much to gain from companies like KickApps,” said Alexa Raad, CEO, .ORG, The Public Interest Registry, the company that manages the definitive directory for all .ORG domain names. “During the recent US Presidential elections, we saw the power of organizing and mobilizing people using the Internet and we’re very excited to see the Special Olympics embrace the web in this manner to further their cause.”

In conjunction with the launch of the Fan Community, Special Olympics is encouraging new members of the community to engage one another by submitting their user generated content focused on three themes:

1)    Submit Your ‘Be a Fan’ Song: The Special Olympics is searching for a song that captures what it means to be a fan for the upcoming Special Olympics Global Youth Unity Rally on February 9, 2009. The song needs to excite a live audience of 3,000 people and an online audience of over 100,000, about the difference they can make. Details for submission and uploading the song can be found at: http://www.specialolympics.org/youth_song.aspx.

2)    Tell Us in Three Words: Share your story of acceptance, dignity, inspiration or fun in three words. Whether it’s about volunteering or being a fan, members of the community are invited to upload a video sharing their passion and commitment. “We’re asking people to be as creative as they like, to show us how attributes like dignity and acceptance that we equate with Special Olympics inspire them in their own daily lives. They can be as simple or elaborate as they want, but just use three words,” added Wheeler. Details about the contest can be found at: http://www.specialolympics.org/three_word_video.aspx.

3)    Create a ‘R-Word’ Public Service Announcement: Whether it’s the word “retard” or similar pejoratives, words not only hurt and marginalize, they shape the way people see the world. Members of the community have an opportunity to influence and change how people think and act by uploading their own 30-second PSA telling the world why it’s so important to “Change the Conversation” and stop using the r-word. For more information, visit: http://www.specialolympics.org/youth_video.aspx.

“Special Olympics is a tremendously important global organization and KickApps is very proud to have the opportunity to help provide a platform for its broader community to connect with each other online,” said Alex Blum, CEO, KickApps. “Special Olympics has done a terrific job of creating programs that generate excitement and participation by members online but that can also be translated to live events and other forms of media. We hope that members of the community can utilize the new website to move faster towards being able to reach and inspire more people around the world to deliver their message of dignity and acceptance.”

About Special Olympics

Special Olympics is an international organization that changes lives by promoting understanding, acceptance and inclusion between people with and without intellectual disabilities. Through year-round sports training and athletic competition and other related programming for nearly 3 million children and adults with intellectual disabilities in more than 180 countries, Special Olympics has created a model community that celebrates people’s diverse gifts. Founded in 1968 by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Special Olympics provides people with intellectual disabilities continuing opportunities to realize their potential, develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage and experience joy and friendship. Visit Special Olympics at www.specialolympics.org .

About KickApps

Selected by BusinessWeek readers as Best of the Web 2008, KickApps provides brands, enterprises and web publishers with solutions that enable social, interactive, dynamic, distributed and data-informed web experiences. KickApps solutions consist of a suite of hosted social and media applications and services that are used by some of the world’s largest websites and brands to grow & engage their online audiences and foster deeper relationships with customers. Clients include: Budget Travel, H&R Block, U2, CW Television, Guinness World Records, Special Olympics, HBO, Cinemax, Cox Television, the Phoenix Suns, the New York Knicks, the New York Rangers and thousands of other sites. For more information, visit www.kickapps.com and www.kickdeveloper.com.

KickApps Public Relations