Christmas Message

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

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

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. 

Read more