As the end of summer is sneaking up on us we wanted to make sure everyone has the registration info for the upcoming year. A reminder that all athletes and volunteers must fill out their forms each year so that we have your updated information for the programs.

Some have asked about the current COVID-19 requirements and recently, after careful consultation with community members and sport, health, and legal experts, Special Olympics BC has decided to remove the COVID-19 vaccination requirement for all programs, competitions, and events. All the other strong safety protocols in the SOBC Communicable Disease Prevention Plan remain in place.

We look forward to seeing everyone soon!

SOBC Nanaimo’s annual meeting was held earlier this month and a new local commitee was elected for the upcoming year. Congratulations to the new team:

Local Coordinator – Deborah Munday

Program Coordinator – Angela Behn

Treasurer – Heiko Behn

Secretary – Tracey Murphy

Registration Coordinator – Dave Forrester

Fundraising Coordinator – Jacky Sheng

Volunteer Coordinator – Shania Phillips

Parent Liaison – Heather Phillips

Event Coordinator – Vacant

A huge thank you to our outgoing Event Coordinator Debbie Young for providing so many opportunities for the athletes to come together and celebrate Special Olympics Nanaimo! You’ll be missed but we’re glad you’ll continue as a coach!

Please make sure you thank all of the volunteers that work tirelessly behind the scenes and as coaches to make sure our programs are successful each year! Without them we wouldn’t be able to do what we do!

The Special Olympics Nanaimo annual meeting will take place on Thursday, July 7 at 6:30pm at the Beban Park Social Centre. All parents, caregivers, volunteers, athletes and supporters of Special Olympics are welcome to attend.

The local committee is looking for more volunteers for the upcoming year. If you’re interested in attending one meeting a month and supporting our athletes and volunteers we would love to hear from you. The local committee consists of these volunteer roles:

Local Coordinator, Program Coordinator, Treasurer, Fundraiser, Volunteer Coordinator, Registrar, Event Coordinator, Secretary and Parent/Caregiver Liaison.

If you have any questions about the meeting or the volunteer opportunities please let us know.

I hope to see many of you there!

Soccer – Monday June 13

Basketball – Tuesday June 14

Track and Field – Tuesday June 21

Softball – Wednesday June 22

Golf – Thursday June 23

It’s been great to see so many athletes, coaches and volunteers back with our programs this year but we’re still missing one thing to be fully back….a party! With that in mind we’d like to invite everyone to join us on Wednesday, June 29th, 6:30pm at Fairview School for a fun wrap-up event.

This will be a great chance to reconnect with friends you may not have seen in a while, enjoy some food and get moving to some sweet, sweet dance tunes!

Tickets are $5 per athlete and $7.50 for parents and caregivers. To order your tickets and share any dietary restrictions you may have please contact:

Debbie Young at 250.739.0881 or email Debbiey1965@hotmail.com
or
Jacky Sheng at 250.802.1088 or email jackysheng29@gmail.com

We look forward to seeing everyone there!

If you have SO Nanaimo stories, results and pictures to share for the newsletter please send them to SOnewsnanaimo. Feedback on the newsletter always welcome!

If you haven’t had a chance to come out yet but are interested in joining a sport there’s still time and space. We have lots of great coaches looking to welcome you back so please don’t hesitate to come out and try a program!

The Nanaimo Clippers have generously reached out to Special Olympics to offer us 10 pairs of tickets to Game 3 and 15 pairs of tickets to Game 4 of their BCHL playoffs final next week.

Game 3 takes place this Tuesday, May 17 and Game 4 on Wednesday, May18. Both games start at 7pm at Beban Park.

If you’re interested in a pair of tickets to one of the games please respond to this email letting us know your name and which game you’d like to attend. Tickets will be assigned on a first come first served basis and we need to know by end of day Sunday night if you’d like some.

Go Clippers Go!

If you have SO Nanaimo stories, results and pictures to share for the newsletter please send them to SOnewsnanaimo. Feedback on the newsletter always welcome!

We’re happy to launch a shortened basketball season next week for all athletes that want to get out and play. Basketball will start on Tuesday, May 10th from 7-8pm at Quarterway School and run for six weeks until June 14th. Everyone welcome!

The days are getting longer (and hopefully warmer soon) and we’re able to announce our sports for the Spring:

Soccer – Monday nights, 6-7pm, Beban Park Turf Fields (entrance off of Dorman Road)

Track and Field – Tuesday nights, 6:15-7:15pm, Rotary Bowl behind NDSS

Starting April 20, Softball – Wednesday nights, 6:30-8pm, Fairview School

Starting April 28, Golf – Thursday nights, 6-7:30pm, Beban Park Pitch and Putt

All athletes must be registered before being able to start at their sports so please make sure to do so as soon as possible if you haven’t already. A reminder that we aren’t collecting registration fees this year but sport specific fees for golf will still be collected though.

A quick update on where we’re at in terms of programs for the Spring. Here are the programs we’re hoping to get running again:

Monday: Soccer – start date TBD
Tuesday: Track and Field – starts April 4th at Rotary Bowl
Wednesday: Softball – start date TBD
Thursday: Golf – start date TBD

We are in need of head coaches for golf and soccer this year. If you’re interested in helping out with those programs please let us know as soon as possible.

A reminder that we aren’t collecting registration fees this year. Sport specific fees for golf will still be collected though.