Special Olympics SVG ‘Take us to the World’

Special Olympics SVG kicked off their World Summer Games fund-raising efforts last weekend with a gala fund-raising jamboree in Kingstown.{{more}}

The Bank of St Vincent and the Grenadines car park was transformed into a buzzing arena of games and fete. The bingo was a great success, but the big surprise was the floor hockey game, played by the Special Olympics athletes, which intrigued and captivated players and spectators.

Behind all this activity and merriment is a very serious drive to take 27 athletes to the Special Olympics 2015 World Summer Games, being held in Los Angeles, California, next year, July 25th to August 2nd, 2015.

Janice McMaster, the Special Olympics national director explained that the mission of Special Olympics St Vincent and the Grenadines is “to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, giving them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in a sharing of gifts, skills and friendship with their families, other Special Olympics athletes and the community.”

The fund-raiser kicks off a year-long drive to ‘Take us to the World’ Games in 2015. The Special Olympics Board chair Sir Errol Allen commented:

“This is the biggest event hosted in Los Angeles for a long time and expected to be the most memorable Special Olympics. We have to be there to show the world what our athletes can do. The athletes are training assiduously and are looking forward to the experience and they are going to make SVG proud.”

McMaster echoed these sentiments and offered heartfelt thanks to all the sponsors who supported the fund-raising event last week, but added:

“There is a long way to go and we are relying on businesses, clubs, community organisations and individual donors to give generously to ‘Take Us to the World’.”

The bingo contest in last weekend’s fund-raiser was a runaway hit and patrons said how much they had missed the game in its short absence from the island’s cultural scene. There were whoops of delight and irreverent shouts whenever players misread their cards. New technology played its part in projecting the number high on the side of a building so everyone could see the game progressing. There were seven rounds of bingo, with prizes that ranged from $100 all the way up to $350 dollars. The big winner of the night was Cassandra Richards, who scooped the jackpot of $2,000 sponsored by the St Vincent Brewery Limited. Other winners: Lorenzo McMaster, Tom Richards, Samantha Yorke, Louis Jones, Rivas Young, Karim French, Malachi Huggins, Roxanne Campbell, Rashae Davis, Zara John, Michelle Jones, Derrick Telemaque, James Moore and Nathalie Cato, walked away with prizes sponsored by Keystone Jewellery, Q-Care Pharmacy, Kingstown Cooperative Credit Union, East Caribbean Metals Industry Limited, Log Enterprises, Red Rose Sports Club (UK), Browne’s Hardware and Eveready Funeral Home, or door prizes sponsored by Gonsalves Liquors.

Persons wishing to support the drive to ‘Take us to the World’ can contact Janice McMaster at info@sosvg.org