Celebrating Our Special Olympics Athletes

Tuesday, 26 March 2019 07:41

Special Olympics Day at Woodstock Police Service Headquarters

The Friendly City was celebrating Special Olympics Day, which featured local athletes who have qualified to go to the Special Olympic Games.

WOODSTOCK - The community of Woodstock celebrated Special Olympics Day, along with the 50th anniversary of the Special Olympic Games.

Local athletes and other members of the community raised the flag outside the Woodstock Police station yesterday afternoon.

Law Enforcement Torch Run Representative for Woodstock Police, Deb Klemp says it was great to see the community come out and show its support.

"We have some great community support here. Every year we do our torch run that comes from Division 1 and we run out to Boston Pizza and Megan Porter and her staff are amazing with us. We have the Knights of Columbus, we have officers and the Chief and the Deputy Inspector that support every move we make. The athletes are amazing. If people could just come to one event and see the passion that these athletes have, and they do it out of the goodness of their heart, you would never say no to helping out with an event like this. It's just incredible."

The boys basketball team from College Avenue Secondary School were in attendance at yesterday's flag raising ceremony and they will compete at the Games. Basketball is among the sports featured in the event. The other sports featured are bocce, floor hockey, track and field and soccer.

Woodstock is among the 50 communities across Ontario raising money for its local athletes to compete in the Games. The community is looking to raise $1,000 to send its athletes to the Invitational Youth Games in May. The Invitational Youth Games will feature athletes from ages 13 to 21 years old competing for the first time.

Klemp says they're still looking to hit their financial goal.

"We will take any little bit we can get. Some of the bigger centres can raise $5,000, $10,000, we're not a big centre. We'll take $1,000, we'll take $2,000, we'll take $20.00 because it all goes into the lump sum and these athletes it pays for their accommodations, their travel, some of their equipment. Otherwise, some of these athletes can't attend because they just don't have the funds."

Mayor Trevor Birtch was also in attendance. He was on hand to show his support and present a cheque for $1,000.00 on behalf of the City of Woodstock, donating to Special Olympics Ontario.

Mayor Birtch says the community will be cheering the athletes on.

"The Friendly City is rooting for you even if we're not there in person, we're there in spirit with you."

Other police detachments across the province took part in Special Olympics Day by having a flag raising ceremony in their community. The overall goal is to raise $50,000 for the Draft an Athlete fundraiser to help send their local athletes to the Games. Each community has a featured campaign on the Draft an Athlete website.

They're looking to have 2,000 athletes in Ontario drafted and you can learn more online here.

The Invitational Youth Games goes from May 14-17th in Toronto.