EUNICE KENNEDY & SARGENT SHRIVER
2000 HUMANITARIAN AWARD
Special Olympics
Global
Eunice and Sargent Shriver were advocates for children with disabilities, teenage mothers and impoverished children. Eunice Kennedy Shriver founded Special Olympics, an organization that has served more than 1 million children with disabilities by providing them with year-round sports training and athletic competition. Also through her work with the Joseph P. Kennedy Foundation and Community of Caring initiatives, she worked to improve societal attitudes toward children with mental retardation and to create support programs for teenage mothers.
Sargent Shriver served as the first director of the Peace Corps and as founder of Head Start and Job Corps. He is responsible for the creation of 12 national programs designed to serve underprivileged youth.