Families that play together
Multisport program offers area youth introductory sessions on Special Olympics sports
Sitting on a sideline bench in a school gym, Natasha MacKinnon smiles as she watches her son Reilly run around with a floor hockey stick in his hand. “He loves basketball best, but it’s great that he’s now getting a chance to try another sport — these activities teach him a lot,” said the Howie Centre mother, whose husband Trevor and daughter Rebecca are also participating the weekly session at Harbourside Elementary School in Whitney Pier.
The 11-year-old Reilly has autism. His twin sister Rebecca does not. But according to mom Natasha, Rebecca’s support is essential in her brother’s development.
And, so is the program that the family has made a regular part of their Sundays.
A partnership of Cape Breton Special Olympics and therapeutic recreation students from Nova Scotia Community College’s (NSCC) Marconi campus, the initiative offers area youth an introduction to a variety of sports in a recreational, noncompetitive environment with the intent of helping young athletes develop sport-specific skills and to facilitate fundamental movement skills.
Donna White, a faculty member of NSCC’s Disability Support and Services department, helps run the multisport initiative that sees therapeutic recreation students from the post-secondary institution volunteer with the multisport program.
White said it’s been identified that there is a shortage of people under the age of 21-years-old when it comes to Special Olympics athletics.
“The program was developed as a transition from fundamental movement to competition for Special Olympics, so it’s kind of like an introductory program using fundamental movement and teaching them specific sport skills that they are going to need for competition as they get a little older,” she said.
“It’s like a tip-your-toe-in to see what the sport is all about because most of the programs that are set up for adults are very sport-specific, but this one introduces the athletes to a wide range of sports.”
Last Sunday, the sport of choice was floor hockey. In fact, a number of members of the Cape Breton Special Olympics floor hockey team showed up to help the NSCC students demonstrate the sport.
Out on the gym floor, the student volunteers are helping Reilly and sister Rebecca with the basics of the game. Then, following a few basic drills, the Special Olympians hit the floor and a full-fledged game breaks out before a handful of family members who cheer on the athletes from the sidelines.
Afterwards, first-year NSCC student Paula Jacobs spoke of how gratifying it is to volunteer and to spend time helping others develop skills that many people take for granted.
“I’m active and I like to help people, so when I read about the course and did some volunteering it drew me toward it — I love to do things I’m passionate about,” said the married mother of a 10-year-old daughter.
Then the whistle blows on another Sunday evening session and the MacKinnons prepare for the journey home. But, they’ll be back next week.
The multisport program runs every Sunday from 6-7 p.m. at the Habourside school and according to White the door is always
open.
“It’s for kids with intellectual disabilities and it’s for anybody who is interested – we try to be
as inclusive as possible,” she said.
More information and a complete list of current programs
with times and locations is available by contacting cbspecialolympics@gmail.com or Cyril MacDonald, regional coordinator,
Cape Breton Special Olympics, at 902-217-3334.