This Edition of Hey Did You Know is going to shed a spotlight on an organization that changes lives and gives opportunities to young students with disabilities. In 1980, Bev Vaughn and the Georgia Dekalb County School System created a volunteer-operated after school program targeted to assist in helping students with physical and visual impairments reach their full potential. This Organization is called American Association of Adapted Sports Program. The American Association of Adapted Sports Program’s mission is to develop and support a standardized structure for school-based athletic competition to improve the well being of students with physical disabilities. In 1999, the American Association of Adapted Sports Program was awarded the Impact Grant for “exemplifying” the goals of America’s promise. This program was recognized as Model of the Nation in 1996 by the Paralympic Organizing Committee. The American Association of Adapted Sports Program was awarded the Tommy Nobis award in 1999 in recognition of its proactive, innovative, and outstanding approach to assisting individuals on reaching their full potential by the Tommy Nobis Center Foundation. *Hey Did You Know… that the American Association of Adapted Sports Program is America’s first interscholastic athletic governing body for students with physical or visual impairment. - Athletes can participate in Wheelchair Handball, Wheelchair Basketball, Power Soccer, Wheelchair Football, Track and Field, and Beep Baseball. *Hey Did You Know… in October 2001, the Georgia High School Association set a national precedent when it named the American Association of Adapted Sports Program its counterpart on behalf of Students with disabilities. The Georgia High School Association recognizes the American Association of Adapted Sports Program as the governing and sanctioning body for interscholastic adapted athletics in Georgia. *Did You Also Know, that the American Association of Adapted Sports Program was honored as one of the most significant and innovative programs in the nation by the Ford Foundation and John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University as 1999 Innovations in Government Award semifinalist. *Hey Did You Know Facts according to www.adaptedsports.org