Tina Meinecke turned down an invitation to join the Munroe-Meyer Institute’s bocce ball team last year.
But this season, she decided to give it a go.
Last weekend, Meinecke left Special Olympics Nebraska’s annual bocce ball tournament with a medal draped around her neck.
“I’m always open to trying new things,” said Meinecke, who works at MMI.
This season, Meinecke and her bocce ball partner Latrice Bond, who works in MMI’s Speech-Language Pathology Department, were just trying to learn the ropes of bocce.
The goal is to roll a bocce ball closest to the target ball, called a pallina.
Meinecke and Bond have worked together for six years before they teamed up for bocce.
“It’s been fun to learn the sport,” Bond said. “It’s a totally new experience for both of us.”
Also part of the team are Rachel Mulligan, who also works at MMI, and her father Mike.
Mulligan competed in bocce ball last year alongside her mother. This year she joined MMI’s team with her dad.
The father-daughter duo admits they’re competitive.
“We do pretty well,” Mulligan said.
Mulligan also competes in snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, power lifting and other sports through Special Olympics.
“It’s a lot of fun,” she said. “I like getting to meet a lot of new athletes.”
Rounding out MMI’s team was the duo of Jacqueline Hankins-Berry, administrative programs associate at MMI, and Oscar Ascencio-Calles.
During the Special Olympics Nebraska competition, the MMI teams cheered each other on, offering high-fives and fist bumps after particularly good lobs of the bocce ball. Everyone walked away with a medal.
“I like that MMI offers us the opportunity to try new things,” Bond said. “Joining Special Olympics is something we can do to give back to our community. It allows us to show how inclusive we are in the community as well.”