Special Olympics founder coming to Island
The founder of Special Olympics Canada is coming to Summerside and Charlottetown. Frank Hayden, also a recent inductee into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame, will take part in the Special Olympics Festival in Summerside as well as the Enriching Lives Gala in Charlottetown. Both events take place on Monday, June 26.
Special Olympics P.E.I. is celebrating its 30th anniversary and organizers are thrilled to share it with the man who started it all.
As a faculty member at the University of Toronto in the early 1960s, Hayden found that children with an intellectual disability were only half as physically fit as their nondisabled peers. Common belief at the time was that the low fitness levels were a direct result of the disabilities. Hayden, however, proved that given the opportunity, individuals with an intellectual disability could participate in sport and could become physically fit.
This discovery led to the Special Olympics movement of today.
Additional celebrities confirmed for the P.E.I. event include Ottawa Senator’s defenceman Dion Phaneuf, former Canada AM host Jeff Hutcheson, two-time Stanley Cup winning head coach, Darryl Sutter, head coach and vice-president of player development for the Island Storm, Joe Salerno, and Special Olympics P.E.I.’s Male and Female Athletes of the Year, Art Smith of Charlottetown and Janet Charchuk of Alberton. Further celebrity announcements are expected in the coming weeks. More information on the festival can be found by visiting www.sopei.com.
The festival is Special Olympics P.E.I.’s largest annual fundraiser. It relies on these funds to offer grass roots programing, quality competitions, trained coaches and much more for athletes of all ages and ability levels. The festival is a two-part event, which includes the Summerside luncheon at Credit Union Place and the Enriching Lives Gala in Charlottetown at the Delta Prince Edward Hotel.
Tickets for the luncheon are $40 each or $300 for a corporate table of eight, while tickets for the gala are $110 each or $880 for a corporate table of eight. They are available by calling Charity Sheehan at 9023688919.