Ireland's Legacy Lives
When Special Olympics World Games comes to a host country, something extraordinary happens. It awakens, unites and empowers an entire nation. And it leaves in its wake a legacy, a legacy that will improve the lives of countless people with intellectual disabilities.
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Special Olympics Ireland volunteers Amy (left) and Jenny Keene were two of the 26 volunteers who traveled to Japan and worked at the Healthy Athletes venue. [Photo by Dr. Stephen Corbin] |
Ireland is proof of that. Special Olympics is still in their blood. Veteran Games volunteers, from Dublin to Galway to Wexford, banded together to raise funds and awareness for Special Olympics Ireland by electing to send a self-funded volunteer contingent to every future World Games anywhere in the world to support Team Ireland and work at the Games. Twenty-six came to Japan.
Their presence didn't go unnoticed in Ireland. They invited celebrity radio host Ian Demspey of Today FM, presenter of the number-one-rated Breakfast Show in Ireland , to broadcast live from Nagano. Millions of Irish citizens eagerly tuned in each day for news of the Games, Team Ireland's successes, and interviews, including Special Olympics Chairman and CEO Timothy Shriver. Ireland's President Mary McAleese even sent a letter of encouragement and congratulations to be read over the air.
The Irish volunteers took turns working at the Special Olympics Healthy Athletes venue and cheering for the eight Team Ireland athletes who all competed in Alpine skiing.
Not only was Ireland bombarded with news from the air waves, they got an eyeful from photographer Ray McManus, owner of Sportsfile. Daily Games photographs were sent back to Ireland and printed in newspapers throughout the country. This only reinforces the Special Olympics grass-roots movement in Ireland that, by the way, includes former Host Towns which have organized new local Special Olympics Networks which are fueling the infrastructure to increase the number of Special Olympics athletes in Ireland by 100 percent by 2007.
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