Los Angeles​

The dinner, held on the picturesque rooftop of the hotel was held to acknowledge the tremendous effort made by their guests over the past two years to get their respective teams to the Summer Games.

Volunteers and Special Olympics officials who took time off from the whirlwind pace of the Games to attend the event, were treated to a night off to relax before going into the Opening Ceremony to be held at the Los Angeles Coliseum on July 24. Many took the opportunity to reconnect with previous Games participants, swap stories and tokens ahead of the Games.

The highway connects Los Angeles to Las Vegas.

"People were screaming. It was just crazy," said Allevato, who watched helplessly Friday afternoon as flames engulfed his rental car and destroyed everything inside it while he, his nephew and two teenage daughters fled to safety.