Oceanstate Community Service

Special Olympics

Special Olympics is the world's largest program of sports training and athletic competition for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Over one million Special Olympics athletes in the United States and nearly 150 nations take part in year-round training and competition in 24 Olympic-type individual and team sports. They are trained and coached, encouraged and cheered on by over half a million volunteers worldwide who support every aspect of Special Olympics, from fund raising to administration, from providing transportation to coaching and officiating at Special Olympics Games.

Special Olympics is the only worldwide competitive sports program sanctioned by the International Olympic Committee to use the word "Olympic" in its name. Throughout the world, Special Olympics is widely recognized as the program that most nearly fulfills the Olympic ideal of sports - competition not for money, victory not for endorsements, and participation not for personal glory or national pride, but for the sheer joy of taking part.

Under the direction of Janice Kaplan, a financial services representative at Oceanstate Financial, associates at Oceanstate volunteer their time for the Special Olympics games in June as well as other functions throughout the year, including the Fall and Spring Bowling Tournaments, the Winter Sports Celebrity Carnival (held at the Rhode Island Convention Center) and Benefest (a Black Tie event), and an Annual Fashion Show, 

Department of Social Services Kids Fund

The DSS Kids Fund is a non-profit entity, created in 1999 to serve as a support system for abused and neglected children in the care of the MAssachusetts Department of Social Services.  Tax-deductible donations to the DSS Kids Fund enable DSS to provide the children with clothing, toys, books, holidays gifts, and other necessary gifts.

Kids Fund programs depend upon the support of private and public-sector donors, as well as those concerned citizens who want to make a difference in the lives of at-risk children.

Tax-deductible donations to the Kids Fund greatly assist DSS in our mission of Caring for Kids.  Contributions may be used for a variety of purposes, such as sending foster children to summer camp, giving a college-bound foster teenager a computer to succeed in school, or enabling a foster child to take music lessons or play youth soccer.  In addition to helping 8,000 Massachusetts and Rhode Island children in foster care and 3,000 children in residential care, the DSS Kids Fund provides support for 30,000 needy children who remain with their birth families while receiving services from DSS.