Teams continue tradition of collecting, trading pins

Pins adorned many of the hats and GEICO ID lanyards of the athletes, coaches and volunteers participating in the 2010 Special Olympics USA National Games. It remains a Special Olympics tradition to collect and trade pins between teams. Participants say it is a fun way to meet each other and make new friends.
Many of the Wisconsin athletes wore hats for their pins, while others used bags or the lanyards around their necks. No matter where the pins were attached, each athlete seemed to have plenty.
The officials had 2010 Special Olympics event pins to trade with the athletes, and the teams had pins to represent their states. Each player on the Minnesota women's basketball team, for example, had 19 pins to give out, and some players had already ran out.
None of the volunteers started out with pins, yet several sported them. Volunteer Pam Pedersen said that many of the athletes stopped to chat with her, so she'd ask for a pin.
"I'm trying to catch them from coaches though. I feel bad getting them from athletes because I have nothing to trade them for," Pedersen said, last week.
To go with her pins, an athlete from Louisiana gave Pedersen a bracelet. The exchange of pins was one way athletes from all over the nation and volunteers from Nebraska got to know each other.
-University of Nebraska-Lincoln