BUTLER TWP — Gold medals and golden fortune earned Val Stiffy a trip to Athens, Greece recently.

Stiffy, 43, a longtime Butler County Special Olympian, represented the United States as a tennis player in the Special Olympics World Games earlier this summer.

She qualified by winning gold medals in singles and doubles at the Special Olympics Pennsylvania (SOPA) Games in June of 2010 and by having her name pulled out of a hat.

“We filled out an application for her last spring (2010),” BCSO tennis coach Larry Bennett said. “One of the stipulations toward staying eligible is to win a gold medal in the State Games.

“Once she did that, Val's name still had to be pulled from a hat that contained all of the eligible names.”

Onlty two female tennis players from Pennsylvania were selected: Stiffy and Krista Genter from Blair County.

Genter was Stiffy's doubles partner at the SOPA Games this year. Stiffy teamed with Butler County's Kari Fallecker to win at the state level last year.

“Val started playing tennis with us in 2007 and she's been steadily improving,” Bennett said.

Stiffy and Genter did not play together at the World Games. Her playing partners were from California and Missouri, respectively.

“They mixed us all up,” Stiffy said. “But we played pretty well. It didn‘t matter who our partners were. Tennis is tennis. They (other countries) play the same way we do.”

Stiffy came away with a fourth-place finish in singles and a bronze medal in doubles. She played against teams from Australia and Poland.

She also endured a long trip to get there. The United States team had 389 members overall. Stiffy and Genter traveled together with the coach from Blair County.

They took a bus from Hershey to Maryland, flew to Greece from there, then took an 18-hour ferry boat ride to the site of the Games.

Stiffy became the first Butler County Special Olympian to reach the International Games since Miles Morris went to Ireland as a bowler eight years ago.

“Miles had family members go over there with him,” BCSO manager Mary Pitzer said. “Val had to go alone, with no family members or any of our coaches.

“She knew a couple of the coaches, but to go to another country for two weeks, with no family or friends along, shows how independent she is.”

Stiffy lives alone and works at the McDonalds inside of the Wal-Mart in Butler.

The biggest adjustment she had to make in Greece?

“We ate Greek food, but it was the same food all of the time,” she said. “The biggest thing was ... they don't flush their toilet paper, they throw it in the waste can. That took some getting used to.”

Overall, the experience was like typical Special Olympics events. There were thousands of athletes competing, representing more than 150 countries.

“Everybody was nice and we cheered for each other,” Stiffy said.

Butler County Special Olympics currently has 12 tennis players and 235 athletes overall.

“Hopefully, Val's experiences will get a few more of our athletes interested in tennis,” Pitzer said.

Practice for the BCSO fall sports season begins next month. Any athletes or volunteers interested in participating may call Pitzer at (724) 738-1477.