The Upper Arlington Special Olympics basketball team competed before a much bigger crowd than it’s used to last weekend, thanks to some excited Windermere Elementary School kindergartners.

For the past several weeks, students in Krista Walther’s kindergarten class have been making signs and posters of encouragement in preparation for the Special Olympics school-age team’s senior night game, which took place at Hastings Middle School on Feb. 4.

Walther said her students have been excited about the game for several weeks.

“We knew we wanted the kids to do something related to service learning, and we thought there might be something we could do with the Special Olympics,” Walther said. “We had run a food drive at our school earlier in the year, and (Special Olympics local coordinator) Stori Rex contacted us to see if we’d like to do this.”

Rex spoke to the class (of which her son is a member) in recent weeks, illustrating that while people appear different on the outside, inside they’re all the same, Walther said.

“Stori came in with pictures of the athletes, and we talked about what they liked to do and told the kids their names,” Walther said. “She had this wonderful analogy where she had two eggs, a brown one and a white one, and she showed the kids that when you crack the eggs open, they’re both the same inside.

“The little kids have such big hearts,” she said. “They really understood that everyone has the same feelings. People might look different from one another, but all people deserve the same respect.”

The students spent the past few weeks making signs for the team and its senior players, and during Saturday’s game the kindergartners and their parents formed a long tunnel for the players to run through as they took to the court.

Rex said the players were delighted by the additional support.

“The players were thrilled,” she said. “Normally, we get about a quarter of the people who were there at our games, so they’re not used to playing in front of such a big crowd. It really made it special for them.”

Walther said it was heartwarming in class to hear the young children talk about the similarities that all people possess.

“The kids at that age, that compassion and empathy just come so naturally for them,” she said.

Rex said the kindergartners may have learned a lesson on Saturday from the basketball players, as well.

“The neatest thing that the kids took away from that, our team played New Albany on Saturday, which this is their first year of playing competitive basketball,” Rex said. “Their team was about half the size and half the age of our team.

“There were several instances where our team just stopped, put their arms down and let the other team have a chance to get some points on the board. I thought that was a great lesson for our kids. At their age they’re so pushed, you gotta win, you gotta win, but there’s more to life than just winning and losing.”

Walther said she hopes the senior night will become a tradition with Windermere students.

“It was great to see the buzz generated and the emails start flying back and forth between parents,” she said. “I hope this will start some conversations, and maybe start some families going to other Special Olympics events.”