Helen Evans has been a Special Olympics athlete for more than 25 years, competing in bowling and cycling since the age of 8. She’s missed only three years in that time.

The North Stonington woman has won mostly medals for both sports.

She stores them, along with accrued ribbons, in a pink wooden box made by a special family friend. She keeps the box in her pink-and-white bedroom in the home she shares with her mother and father, Julie and Richard Evans.

Helen, 37, is one of the thousands of children and adults with intellectual disabilities who train, compete and succeed across the state in track and field, cycling, gymnastics, aquatics, soccer and tennis events for the summer Special Olympics, held next month at Southern Connecticut State University.

Helen experimented with other sports, but cycling has become her sport of choice for the Summer Games and bowling for the Winter Games for the past decade.

“I like them both the same,” Helen said in an interview. “But I like the cycling because it’s good exercise and I need to exercise, right mom?” she asked, looking to her mother for confirmation.

Aside from the minimum eight weeks of training for the Summer Olympics, Helen, with her pink helmet, can be spotted riding her pink-and-white bike with her father on weekends at Wheeler School or around Pachaug State Forest. She also has a stationary bike but isn’t consistent about riding it.

Helen enjoys sports, but she has other interests, too. She helps her mother with table settings, cleanup and salad preparation at social functions at North Stonington Congregational Church, where the family are parishioners.

She attends Friday night socials at ARC of New London County, a nonprofit organization offering advocacy, employment opportunities, life-skill training, recreation, and more to those with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It is here Helen meets up with her boyfriend of 16 years, Mike Galipeu, also a Special Olympian participating in bowling and cycling.

There is no lack of exuberance when she speaks of Galipeu, her brother Tom and sister-in-law Maya, and Helen’s new nephew, Naveen. She also lights up as she describes her favorite television shows, “Friends,” “Dancing with the Stars,” and “American Idol.”

Although opportunities are limited for those with developmental disabilities, Helen has overcome many obstacles. She has been a Girl Scout, assisted with softball and basketball coaching at Wheeler High School before graduating with the Class of 1996, and held several jobs. Currently, she’s employed at Puffin’s in Groton, working up to 25 hours a week, baking her favorite peanut butter fudge brownies and other confectioneries. Her duties include reading recipes, gathering ingredients, measuring and preparation.

Mother Julie Evans said Helen took culinary classes at Grasso Tech while participating in a LEARN program.

“It was a wonderful vocational program,” Julie Evans said.

Helen started with special needs classes at 15-months-old, and continued with LEARN throughout her school years. Her mother said she has been involved in all sorts of pre-vocational programs that have helped her to be more outgoing.

At Special Olympics, in addition to the competitors, hundreds of coaches and even more volunteers are expected to come out and support the athletes.

Debbie Janda, a friend of the Evans’ family who has offered respite care for them for nearly 25 years, will be with Helen throughout the weekend as her coach. The two women are close. They talk daily, often more than once, on the telephone.

“Helen is social, she’s very confident riding and she knows she’s one of the strongest riders,” said Janda. “She needs positive strokes and reminders sometimes, but she normally doesn’t have to look to anyone for assurance.”

Janda added, “Helen is a very thoughtful, empathic, caring and helpful person. She has a lot of her mother’s good, cooperative giving qualities.”

Helen has an older brother, Everett, with severe disabilities, so Julie Evans has been involved with ARC and was an early organizer for Special Olympics.

The sports competition means a lot to the family.

“It brings out the best in people,” Julie Evans said. “We are very pleased with the services and activities that Special Olympics offers. For many reasons that are hard for Helen to explain, the experience is great, she sees people helping one another and it’s a very positive experience for her.”

Helen, too, associates positive thoughts with Special Olympics.

“I get to see my boyfriend, and my friends, and Jake, who taught me to use hand brakes and got me interested in cycling,” she said. “I like it because it’s good exercise and I don’t get enough, and I like sleeping in the dorms with my friends.”

j.conlon@theday.com