Reflections on a life of service with Special Olympics

Marilyn Borrell has devoted over 40 years to helping people with intellectual impairments in Charles County.

Now in hospice care after being diagnosed with congestive heart failure, Borrell recently took time to talk about her life’s passion.

The 76-year-old said her work began because of her daughter, Emily, who had special needs.

When Emily was around 6 years old, someone said to Borrell, “Why don’t you come and see the Special Olympics? Maybe it’s something you would want to get Emily into,” she recalled.

When Borrell got there, even though her daughter was not competing in the games she was asked to take over the family raffle table at the event.

After that, the rest was history.

Borrell took care of the raffles and bake sales that the family table hosted as Emily competed throughout the years.

Emily died when she was 22, after competing in the Special Olympics for about 15 years. At the time, Borrell’s husband, Fred Borrell, was a coach for the organization and she was still running raffles and bake sales.

Fred said that Emily never had a formal diagnosis. Doctors tried running genetic tests, but they came back with no abnormalities. Her death was likely due to a seizure from a medication’s side effect, he said.

In the face of tragedy, Marilyn decided that she would not leave the games.

“The Special Olympics is family,” she said.

Emily adored the Special Olympics, competing in swimming, basketball and track and field, and the mother chose to honor her daughter’s legacy, according to Marilyn.

She reminisced on Emily’s funeral, saying how everyone had their “Emily stories.”

Marilyn recalled how high school volleyball players told her that Emily would come to their games, gather them together and say, “Repeat after me — ‘Let me win, but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt. Now go play volleyball.’”

That line was the Special Olympics Athletes’ Oath, and Marilyn said that was her way of making the non-Special Olympians “special.”

Marilyn eventually became the area director for the Charles County Special Olympics for about six years, organizing the annual opening ceremonies with the color guard, getting someone to sing the national anthem and finding a master of ceremonies, among other tasks.

Her efforts to serve people with disabilities did not end with the Special Olympics.

Marilyn volunteered with Camp Co-Op, a six-week summer program for children diagnosed with significant cognitive delay, shortly after its creation. She worked her way through the ranks of camp, and was eventually asked if she would consider being the director. She accepted and managed up to 40 campers at a time.

She directed the camp for two years before the Charles County Board of Education decided that someone from the school system needed to run it, but Marilyn stayed on as the assistant camp manager, she recalled.

The Knights of Columbus helped fund some of the Camp Co-Op activities, but also helped Marilyn organize a large Christmas party for children with special needs each year for the past four decades. Marilyn made sure that a Santa Claus who was patient with children was in attendance, and she got gifts for each of the children.

Her holiday efforts also included an Adopt-A-Family program where she would put a Christmas tree up at St. Mary’s Star of the Sea Church in Indian Head that had construction paper ornaments that included information on the child the community was providing gifts for.

Through all of her work, Marilyn said that Emily remained her motivation.

Fred said that he remembered a poem that Marilyn showed him after they first had Emily.

The 1987 poem “Welcome to Holland” by Emily Perl Kingsley tells the story of a couple that planned a trip to Italy and made all of the necessary preparations. They boarded their plane, flew to Europe and found out upon landing that they were in Holland.

The couple was shocked, but then remember the beauty that Holland has to offer.

In the poem, the couple will be able to enjoy their vacation if they do not hold bitter feelings about their missed trip.

Fred compared the poem to his experience raising Emily with Marilyn.

“We made the best of Holland,” he said.