Late last year, Special Olympics USA put out a call for our athlete delegates to submit artwork for an official Special Olympics World Winter Games Turin 2025 team sticker. We received a number of creative submissions and eventually narrowed it down to a Top-3, which were then voted upon online.
The submission with the most votes was from DanceSport athlete Natalie Green of Special Olympics Utah, who finds peace through art, dance and theater as a way to express herself.
“I’ve loved art ever since I was really young,” said Natalie. “Art is like a stress-reliever for me. It just makes me so happy. It cheers me up when I’m feeling down.”
Natalie’s colorful drawing captured a variety of landmarks in Turin, including the Basilica di Superga, surrounding hills and winter weather.
The next step for Special Olympics USA: actually produce a usable sticker.
Special Olympics USA turned to artist Jesi Ekonen of Just Follow Your Art to take Natalie’s artwork from paper to product in time for the delegation sendoff dinner on March 5.
Just prior to the dinner festivities on March 5 in New York City, we revealed Natalie’s own sticker to her in the final form – the same sticker that will be shared by every member of the 100+ member delegation.
“It looks great,” said Natalie. “I love it. It looks almost exactly like my picture that I did. Thank you so much, Jesi. I absolutely love this.”
Natalie will join the Special Olympics USA delegation for March 8’s Opening Ceremony in Turin and will begin competition next week. She is excited to showcase not only her skills on the dance floor, but also through her talents as an artist.
“It makes my heart so happy that my art is getting to represent the whole US delegation,” she said. “It has been a dream of mine to show my art around the world and to show what inclusion looks like with my art.”