Longtime Special Olympics volunteer honors daughter's legacy

In one way or another, Terri Siefke has been involved in the Special Olympics since 1988, when she first watched her only daughter compete in a track meet in Seattle.

Since she was 8 years old, Chrissy Siefke competed in numerous events – basketball, bowling, track and field, swimming, powerlifting, bocce and snowshoeing – and Special Olympics Montana named her Athlete of the Year in 2013. She also served as an ambassador for the organization, speaking to groups around the Flathead Valley, raising money and promoting understanding of people with intellectual disabilities.

While she enjoyed the physical challenges, Chrissy loved the cheering spectators and the opportunity to meet and interact with people, her mother said.

Chrissy died at age 37 in June 2018 after a bacterial infection that spread to her heart. But Terri Siefke has continued volunteering in her honor as director of the Special Olympics Glacier area, which spans from Kalispell to the northwest corner of the state. With a network of other volunteers, she coordinates games among about 17 teams, including Chrissy's team, the Kalispell Krushers.

"It's just something that I need to do, and I plan on doing until I can't do it anymore," Terri Siefke said.

"Unless they fire me," she joked, "but I don't know if you can fire volunteers."

Siefke said her favorite part of the Special Olympics is the camaraderie it fosters among athletes.

"You've seen the commercials on TV where somebody falls and then the next one stops and helps them up during a race," she said. "That happens. That's true. That's not just an advertisement. The athletes are very caring, about everybody."

IN CELEBRATION of its 50th anniversary, Special Olympics Montana recently included Siefke on a list of 50 people and organizations "who have contributed to and championed thousands of Montanans with intellectual disabilities throughout the past half-century."

Siefke, 58, works full time managing the auto repair shop she and her husband own in Kalispell. But her office there also serves as a hub for her volunteer work.

"The bottom drawer here is Special Olympics. That over there, Special Olympics," she said, gesturing around her office during an interview last week. On the floor was a box of T-shirts for athletes and volunteers. On the wall hangs a 2012 Volunteer of the Year plaque.

"She has a full-time job and does this, too. She's like the Energizer Bunny," said Karen Kimball, who was also a longtime Special Olympics volunteer in the area. "I admire that. I really admire that about her."

Siefke said it's been especially challenging to organize games amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but she's determined to make it happen.

"We usually have around 200 participants in our winter games, in skiing and snowshoeing and snowboarding," she said. But this year, groups can't exceed 50 people, which means volunteers must split up the crowd and stagger event times.

"I've been working with the state office to try and get it figured out, how we can make this happen," Siefke said. "If there's a way to do it, we'll do it."

Information about volunteering, donating and getting involved in the Special Olympics locally can be found at somt.org/glacier-area.

Reporter Chad Sokol can be reached at 758-4434 or csokol@dailyinterlake.com