I never thought I would see someone run as many races as Rachel Lindberg has over the years—including a lot for the Xtra Mile, like Boston’s Run to Remember and Falmouth Road Races. The years for those races are 2019 for Boston’s Run to Remember, and Falmouth Road Races were in 2020, 2022, and 2023. Now, Rachel is training for the 2025 B.A.A. Boston 5K race to support Special Olympics MA. Rachel is training and exercising weekly and doing some interval training as well. She has been running for many years now. Rachel is running the 5K to help raise money for Special Olympics.

“It’s been fun, running,” said Rachel. “I like being able to get exercise while kind of being outside and being able to see different things.”

Rachel has run many races for Special Olympics, but that’s not the only way she is involved. She also coaches her swim team and volunteers at Summer Games in June. She loves working with Special Olympics and the athletes and coaches and volunteers too. She loves Special Olympics so much that she even got her dad, Chuck Lindberg involved.

Many of you might know Chuck as a Special Olympics MA photographer and volunteer; but something you might not know about him is that he actually got involved with Special Olympics because of his daughter, Rachel. It all happened when Rachel asked him to come take photographs the SOMA MASS Team that she was a Unified Partner with at the time.

“I really enjoyed it,” he said. “I came back and did a couple more for the MASS team, and then I got involved doing it for the state, and I’ve been all around Massachusetts now.”

It’s really special that Rachel and Chuck are able to volunteer together. They both particularly love volunteering for Special Olympics MA that the annual Summer Games in Boston. Rachel goes as a coach who brings her swim team and Chuck takes photographs and covers multiple sporting events. They get to see how excited the athletes and coaches and volunteers are to compete and to meet people from all over the state.

Rachel and Chuck volunteer for Special Olympics in very different ways, but every volunteer role is important. Volunteers show that the athletes and coaches are supported. “I’m always inspired by athletes,” said Rachel.

Chuck said, “I especially enjoy doing photography because I get to tell the stories of the athletes, volunteers, parents, and even the SOMA staff members to some extent. And to share that with people, to show them just how impressive and how important ‘special’ is.”

Events like Summer Games wouldn’t be possible without supporters like Rachel and Chuck and tomorrow Rachel is taking her support one step further by being on the Xtra Mile Boston 5K Team. Even though Rachel has a full-time job, is working on her Master’s Degree, and in the middle of coaching her swim program to prepare for Summer Games, she is taking time to train for the Xtra Mile Boston 5K team and she is fundraising to support Special Olympics and helping athletes and coaches celebrate INCLUSION.

Anne is a member of the Special Olympics MA Content Squad. The mission of Special Olympics MA Athlete Leadership is to empower athletes to develop communication skills and utilize their voices to assume meaningful leadership roles. As members of the Content Squad, athlete leaders contribute to Special Olympics MA story-telling through interviews, photos, video creation, and more.