{"id":219102,"date":"2026-06-14T18:19:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T18:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/219102\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T18:19:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T18:19:13","slug":"after-injury-bethlehem-man-volunteers-for-special-olympics-pennsylvania-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/219102\/","title":{"rendered":"After Injury, Bethlehem man volunteers for Special Olympics Pennsylvania"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"WPVI\"<\/a>Fri, June 12, 2026 at 11:06 PM UTC<\/p>\n

Amy and Matt were newlyweds with excitement for their future before tragedy struck.<\/p>\n

“I was injured. I broke everything from my wrist to my shoulders…It’s been a little over three and a half years at this point. I just had surgery 14 that was done, my wrists do not bend…” said Matt Reardon.<\/p>\n

Needing an outlet, he found Special Olympics Pennsylvania in the Greater Lehigh Valley Pocono Region.<\/p>\n

“I had nowhere to go. As time was passing, the depression kicked in…That’s what got me in the Special Olympics… I don’t have to use my hands now. It’s using my mind. I can speak to people and interact with people…And it’s become more of a family than anything at this point,” Reardon said.<\/p>\n

While becoming engrained in every piece of their programming, Matt discovered that helping their athletes was saving him in the process.<\/p>\n

“Our mission is to serve people with intellectual disabilities and make sure that they have opportunities, and we cannot do that without volunteers like Matt,” said Julie Benjamin, Executive Director of Special Olympics Pennsylvania Greater Lehigh Valley Pocono Region.<\/p>\n

Part of their services are held at Hitters Edge<\/a> in Hokendauqa.<\/p>\n

For more information, check out the video above.<\/p>\n

Also, check out their website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fri, June 12, 2026 at 11:06 PM UTC Amy and Matt were newlyweds with excitement for their future…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,95540,30093,86992],"class_list":["post-219102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-matt-reardon","tag-special-olympics","tag-special-olympics-pennsylvania"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}