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Top, Cecil Villard, winner of Special Olympic Canada's Jim Thompson award.
Bottom, Thompson (right) with Special Olympics Canada athlete Harvey Arch, was instrumental to the Program's early success. |
Cecil Villard wins Jim Thompson Award and upholds the volunteer legacy
On 14 August 2002, Special Olympics Canada lost one of its earliest supporters, Jim Thompson. Thompson was so instrumental to the Program’s early success that they renamed their Volunteer of the Year Award after him posthumously. This year’s recipient, Special Olympics Prince Edward’s Cecil Villard, a volunteer for more than 20 years, was himself key to his local Program’s germination.
Thompson’s importance to Special Olympics Canada cannot be overstated. As an early supporter of the Sports Celebrities Festival in Canada, Thompson used his position at The Sports Network (TSN) to telecast the Festival annually beginning in 1989, giving Special Olympics great exposure in the Great White North. During that same year he helped produce a one-hour special on the Special Olympics Ontario Summer Games at York University, Games coverage which also has turned into an annual event. National prominence notwithstanding, Thompson was a hands-on supporter, proving as adept at helping with local events as national fundraising bonanzas. Kathleen Kostynuk, National Fundraising and Development Coordinator for Special Olympics Canada, recalled Thompson’s integrity and affability. “Jim gave wise counsel and provided incisive insight into a number of issues facing Special Olympics, but above all he brought to our movement his wonderful humor and his delight in the company of the numerous ordinary Canadians who make Special Olympics in Canada happen,” she said.
Thompson’s warmth and generosity of spirit are replicated in Villard. Along with his achievements for his local Program in Prince Edward Island, he has become a key national leader by serving on Special Olympics Canada’s Board of Directors and several of its subcommittees where he has helped promote national recognition of the Program. Still attached to his local Program, Villard’s efforts in stumping for his home turf have culminated in Prince Edward Island being named host of the 2004 Special Olympics Canada National Winter Games. For all of his hard work, Villard was named the Prince Edward Island Sport Administrator of the Year for 2002.
It’s good to know that Jim Thompson has left Special Olympics Canada in good hands.
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