Christmas Message
December 14, 2010 by deb · Leave a Comment
What a fantastic year it has been. Special Olympics Sydney Upper North Shore region now offers 10 sports with a total of 37 different locations and 42 different times. There are almost 300 athletes participating each week in our programs, many attending two or more sessions. Our Special Olympics motor skills schools program introduces many children to Special Olympics and encourages further participation.
Other highlights of 2010 include 3 regional carnivals. A swimming carnival at Oakhill College thanks to Russell Becker and his swimming committee, a basketball championships coordinated by Anthea Karseboom and her faithful team and the softball carnival organised by Deb Frost, Brett Wainwright and Catherine Heuzenroeder.
Our management committee has worked tirelessly and I would like to thank each of them for the sincere commitment and dedication that they have shown during the year.
2010 has also seen continued work in setting up the Hills Region. It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to Aileen Buecker, Sue Teale and Kerry Nethery as they depart our committee to take up similar positions with the Hills Region. We wish the Hills Region the best of luck and will continue to work closely with them on their Special Olympics jouney.
We are all involved with Special Olympics in order to offer opportunities for our wonderful athletes to play sport. Our athlete’s progress in many cases has been remarkable. I feel privileged to have been part of that.
These are challenging times with respect to fundraising and hence here will be some changes to the fee structure of Special Olympics Sydney Upper North Shorein 2011. For further information and to organise your registration please check the website www.souppernorthshore.com
Please have a wonderful and safe Christmas and holiday.
Paul Phelan
Chairman
Special Olympics Sydney Upper North Shore
Chairman’s Variety Dinner Speech
September 8, 2010 by deb · Leave a Comment
Our Variety Night Dinner is our major fundraising event for the year. All credit for making the night such a wonderful occasion goes to Fran and Karina Eustace and their very hardworking committee.
Events like this cannot happen without input from our sponsors and we are very luck to be well supported by our major sponsor SAS Software based at Lane Cove. SAS not only supports us financially they also provide volunteers to assist with our sports programs. Read more
National Games Experience
May 13, 2010 by deb · Leave a Comment
Recently I was lucky enough to attend the Special Olympics National Games from 19 - 24 April 2010, which were held in Adelaide.
The Games brought about 850 athletes with intellectual disabilities together from every Australian state and territory to compete in 12 sports. This unique national sporting event was conducted almost entirely by about 650 local volunteers including the official Games Organising Committee.
Inspirational Speech by Bill Shorten
October 20, 2009 by deb · Leave a Comment
The following speech was made by Bill Shorten at the Special Olympics dinner held on Friday August 28th. I really appreciated the speech and I hope that you do as well.
You must be thinking, oh my goodness, what could a junior minister in the Rudd Government have to say that could provoke your interest on such a fantastic night.
Well first of all I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land and I would like to thank Special Olympics Sydney Upper North Shore for inviting me.
The first thing I would like to say is that I congratulate Mel Eustace on her award. It was fantastic.
I don’t know what set of circumstances brings you each here tonight. It could be a family reason, it could be a notion of just giving back to your community. It could be that you’ve accidentally come across Special Olympics and once touched, you can never let it go, because it is so special. Read more
2009 Special Olympics Australia National Conference
May 7, 2009 by sosuns · Leave a Comment
The 2009 Special Olympics Australia (SOA) National Conference, themed Let’s Grow Together, was held on the 2nd and 3rd of April. Jack Bahng, John Goo, Sue Teale, Ivy Tang, Paul Phelan, Ian Hyman and I travelled to my hometown Adelaide for the conference. Arriving on Friday, we had the opportunity to visit venues for the 2010 national Games also being held in Adelaide. The strong themes from the conference revolved around a focus on our athletes, growth in our program through positive change and quality sports competition and the 2010 National Games.
