Story by Charles M. Hoard. Photos by Terry Hoard.

With 6,500 athletes and 3,000 coaches representing 165 countries, along with 30,000 volunteers and an anticipated 500,000 spectators, the 2015 Special Olympics World Games – which just ended here in Los Angeles – was be the largest sports and humanitarian event anywhere in the world in 2015, and the single biggest event in Los Angeles since the 1984 Olympic Games.

Terry Hoard has been involved with the Special Olympics in the Santa Clarita Valley for several years now.  Good news travels fast; Terry was approved as a gymnastics photographer for LA2015 until word of her ‘photographer’s eye for action’ spread.  Terry was then re-tasked from just gymnastics to tennis, softball judo and football (known here of course, as soccer).

Photo of Terry Hoard, LinkedIn

Terry is deeply involved in her community.  She is a photographer with the aforementioned Special Olympics of Santa Clarita Valley and a committee member at Habitat for Humanity, and Lipstick Angels, a volunteer group that does makeovers on men and women in cancer wards throughout Southern California.  She has received awards for her volunteer work from both California’s Governor and the President of the United States.  In her free time, Terry has made a guest appearance on The Doctors Television show, and was an actress on The Style Network’s #1-rated show, Big Rich Texas, for three seasons.

Besides the honor of being chosen for the Special Olympics World Games, Terry was invited to the Sundance Film Festival in January of this year, where she won Photographer Best In Class award from Sundance’s Indielounge, a first for a 1^st year photographer.  Needless to say, she has already been invited back to Sundance for their 2016 film festival.