HAPPY VALLEY-GOOSE BAY, N.L. — It was a big week for the Howling Huskies Special Olympics group with their annual banquet and awards ceremony taking place June 9 and the following weekend they held their annual Sports Day at Peacock School.
The athletes were joined by their families and friends to celebrate what has been a very successful year. Lake Melville MHA Perry Trimper and Happy Valley-Goose Bay Mayor Wally Andersen were in attendance to present each athlete with a certificate for their outstanding performance and excellence in representing the community.
A special award to be presented was the Shana Rea Memorial Award. Shana was a former member of the Howling Huskies who passed away in a house fire in February 2010. The award, presented by Shana’s mom Rhona, is awarded to the Most Spirited Athlete. This year’s recipient was Jeannie Walsh.
Howling Huskies Club coordinator Sue Lamond told The Labradorian there were a total of 21 athletes in the group ranging in age from eight to 67 taking part in the event.
“This is our fourth year of facilitating the Sports Day,” Lamond said. “We are very lucky to be supported by Rotary who are cooking the barbecue and the staff from the RBC who do all the timing and scorekeeping. It’s a big community event.”
She said there was a range of events to cater for everyone’s ability level, including 50 metre and 100 metre running races, wheelchair races and walking races for those athletes who are unable to run. There was also shot put, mini javelin, long jump and ring toss.
Cherie Turner, whose daughter Danielle was participating in the events, said Danielle has been a part of the Howling Huskies Special Olympics program for around five years.
“For Danielle it’s more of a social thing. She is not really able to participate in the sports as much, she’s not a competitive Special Olympics athlete,” Turner said.
She said Danielle participates in all the social events like the Christmas Party, Halloween Party and Sports Day. It’s an opportunity to get out and interact with friends.
“Danielle is non-verbal, but she likes to go around and mingle and I think from her actions it shows that she likes being a part of the Special Olympics,” Turner said. “I have two other kids that are very involved in sports — hockey and soccer and the high school sports, but this is really the only thing for Danielle, so I really like her to be involved in this.”
Facilitating all of the events throughout the day, making sure they were all running smoothly were the staff from the local RBC. RBC branch manager Rachael Best said this was second year for them supporting the Howling Huskies.
“It makes me amazingly proud to work with such an organization as RBC who encourages the staff to become involved in the community and volunteer their time,” said Best.
Apart from the five RBC staff that were on hand throughout the duration of the day, RBC also provides a community services grant of $2,000 for the Howling Huskies Special Olympics.
You could see from the excitement amongst the athletes and the smiles on their faces that they were all having a great time and enjoying the day. This was their day, and as the oath of the Special Olympics reads “Let me win, but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt” —all of the athletes truly embraced this.
