Special Athlete Track Meet - YEAR 30! 
June 21,  2017!!!! 

Thanks to everyone that participated and helped to run this event for 30 years and for always making it a fabulous day! 

This year we had 350 athletes from 50 schools participate at Garth Webb High School. 

We started with 12 athletes in 1988 when parent Linda Leppek and Physical Education Consultant, Sue Amos started the event 30 years ago.

I was taking adapted Physical Education for my Phys. Ed. Specialist at the University of Toronto that year and joined them that summer when I phoned Sue Amos and said I had an idea. We had incredible chemistry in putting this together for the first few years.  The rest is history.

Thanks to the Special Education Department for years of support. Especially the support I received in the early years, in 1998 to 2008 with Special Education Coordinator Deb Wood and Superintendent Brenda Kearney.  Special mention to Susan Pritchard for her collaborative leadership and amazing secretarial staff through the previous 8 years: Hilary Francey, Mary-Jane Ritchie, Carol Ahern, and Carol Jack.

Thanks to a very supportive SEAC. They were always there supporting athletes.

Thanks to very supportive Education Directors, Superintendents and Trustees through all these years.

Thanks to incredible Educational Assistants and Educational Support Workers who supported their athletes and cheered them on.

Thanks especially  to my team of  Field Marshalls: Corinne Stratford, Leslie Davis , Barry Koepke and Alison McGurk Pabst, for the amazing job of running this event for decades.   Through the years they brought students officials from a variety of schools, who ran the events with incredible enthusiasm and leadership.

Thanks to Steve Morrison for taking over at the mike and for announcing with enthusiasm and to Shelley Gauthier for running Boccia for the last few years.

Watch an outstanding synopsis of the day on this great short video by our board media specialist, Jason Misner.

https://youtu.be/MssK_CZLvq4

Also posted to the Special Education Tab