My Trip to Washington D.C.
By: Fengxian Yuan
In February of 2024, I boarded a plane to Washington D.C. with some other advocates. We flew from PDX to Chicago and then on to Washington D.C. It was crowded and busy. It was my first time going to our nation’s capitol.
We started with a reception where we heard from Special Olympics speakers and prepped for our day on the hill. They went over how to talk to policy makers and gave us helpful tips – like not to engage in political debate, shake hands after you meet with them, and say thank you for meeting with us.
What was powerful was standing in the US Capitol and being in the rotunda. It was also interesting that in DC, you have to walk to different buildings, unlike Oregon where everything is all inside. You have to have an escort when you go down through the tunnels. We had to go through a lot of metal detectors for safety.
We talked with our congresspeople about our Special Olympics story. I started in high school, then through college, and now am in the community-based program. I like Special Olympics because they took me to games and made me a part of the conference. I’m passionate about people having the opportunity to play and not just sit on the sidelines. Special Olympics is open to everybody and welcomes everybody. It is important to keep funding special Olympics because people with I/DD have health disparities. We left them with contact information and a business card. We met with people from both of our Senators – Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley. Our representatives were willing to hear our needs and our wants. I feel like our advocacy made a difference to keep the funding going forward.
In our free time, we got to go to the Supreme Court. I wanted to stay there the whole day just taking it in. I was able to see some old friends from the USA Games and also meet some new people. I got to see the Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam War Memorial, Washington Monument, and also see where they had the big Women’s March. We went to Chinatown and I got to eat food from my culture.
As I left, I was thinking that I wanted to stay and keep advocating for people with disabilities, like social security changes. I want to make sure that people with disabilities help write the laws, not just people in power. We want to be empowered and speak up for our needs and our community. It made me want to keep doing advocacy!
