Party Supplies Add Up When You Are Hosting the World

RALEIGH — The start of the 1999 Special Olympics World Summer Games is just a few weeks away. With nearly10,000athletes and coaches and30,000volunteers, World Games organizers will need a lot of stuff.

How much? Well, imagine having10,000people over to your place for ten days. Here's an idea of what it will take to host just the athletes and coaches.

You will need lots of food as320,000athlete meals will be served during the Games. That is enough food to feed a family of four three meals a day for 73 years. The Games will serve up67,700apples. If you eat an apple a day, you would keep the doctor away for 185 years. Like candy? Athletes and others will much on33,143pounds of M&M's. If you are keeping count, that adds up to3,604,090fat grams. To beat the summer heat, Games staffers will serve up800,000bottles of water and700,000cans of Coke -- enough liquid to fill up 19 backyard swimming pools. The athletes and coaches who come here from around the world will be a long way from home. They will be treated to some free phone calls. Total up all the free minutes and you will find yourself on the phone for nearly35 daysstraight. To share information,1.8 millionsheets of copy paper will be used. If you made 50 copies a minute, you would be copying continuously for 25 days. Smile! Competitors will be given disposable cameras. Total all the photos they take and you would have240,000photographs. These are all big numbers, but Games organizers hope you will remember two smaller ones:26and4-- June 26 through July 4 -- the days the biggest sporting event in the world this year takes place in the Triangle.

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