In fact, her aunt was one of those disabled students. And she was very successful, winning a gold medal for swimming at such an event.

So helping students with disabilities became a passion for Hoiby, first as a small child, then in high school in Gurnee, Illinois, and now as a middle school and high school special education teacher for the School District of Florence County.

Now, seven years after she moved to the area, Hoiby has seen her dream of bringing such events to the local area become reality. She organized and coordinated the first Florence Unified Field Day, which was held on May 23 on the Florence campus.

The district and the Bobcat Bistro, a microbusiness coffee shop at Florence schools run by Hoiby and the students in her program, partnered with Special Olympics Wisconsin to host the event. Volunteers from Special Olympics Wisconsin, students from Florence High School’s National Honor Society and teachers from Florence, Niagara and Beecher-Dunbar-Pembine school districts gathered to host the event, which allowed students who receive special education services to socialize with non-disabled peers in a unified event through leisure and physical activities.

One of the students’ favorite activities of the day was an obstacle course race. Event coordinator and School District of Florence County special education teacher Jennifer Hoiby, right, not only planned and organized the United Field Day, but also offered assistance any time she was needed.

The Florence TORPEDO (Together Our Responsibility Embraces Direction and Opportunity) club, a community service group affiliated with the University of Wisconsin-Extension, also played a role.

Disabled students participated in activities such as the limbo, an obstacle course, scooter races on the track, bowling, tic-tac-toe, frisbee golf, basketball and tattoo and face painting.

“I came from a large school, so I’m very familiar with pulling together opportunities for students with or without disabilities to come together, but also for students within programs to go out into the community,” Hoiby said. “So when I came up here, I realized that there were very little opportunities for our students with disabilities up here.”

In response, Hoiby started with basic activities, such as bringing the students out into the community so they could get to know the local businesses.

Along the way, Hoiby began to reach out to other districts to organize events with the Golden K and other gatherings.

“We formed beautiful, lasting relationships,” Hoiby explained. “We’ve had Bobcats come in and inquire about wanting to spend time with our student population. So I thought the next step would be, now that we’ve built this component of our program where we come together with local districts on community outing events, would be to build it by bringing in students without disabilities so they can have the experience to practice tolerance and kindness.”

In that effort, Hoiby reached out to Special Olympics Wisconsin Unified Champion Schools Manager Princess Brinkley. The two met in person at a special education conference in Wisconsin Dells and began planning for what became the first Florence Unified Field Day.

They’ve imagined such a day for awhile now, but COVID-19 restrictions kept putting it off, Hoiby said. But this May was the right time.

“This year was the year, so we decided that we were going to start small by just opening up and having a field day, inviting the Niagara and Pembine districts that we already have done community-based outings with on a regular basis.”

Thirty-five students with disabilities from the three districts, participated in the field day, along with 18 teachers from the districts and 15 volunteers from the Florence NHS and its TORPEDO club.

Other Florence students came forward to volunteer for set up and clean up duties, as well as getting involved in some of the events.

“I’ve already had feedback from some students who typically are focused on their iPads or screen time that were actually putting that down and requesting to come out (and join in.)”

Mother Nature contributed with a beautiful sunny day with temperatures in the 70s. The event lasted from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

“By the end of the day, everybody was so unified and cheering each other,” Hoiby said. “It honestly was a dream come true for me. I couldn’t have asked for a better day, a better group of people that we involved. It was a most wonderful opportunity to be able to host this.”

Jerry DeRoche can be reached at 906-774-2772, ext. 247, or at jderoche@ironmountaindailynews.com.