In October, Martha Hill, International Global Messenger and Special Olympics Wisconsin athlete, traveled to Calgary, Canada to attend the Special Olympics Annual General Meeting.
Athlete attends Special Olympics General Meeting in Canada
By Martha Hill
This October 16th through the 19th, I traveled to Calgary, Alberta in Canada to attend the Special Olympics Annual General Meeting. That’s kind of like our state conference. They held meetings and workshops for athletes and coaches and then an awards banquet that evening. When I got the email asking me to go, I found out if Jeanne, my escort, could make it and the next thing I knew we were on the way to Calgary.
In Canada, they have large areas called provinces, which are like our states. They call their agencies, affiliates. I learned many interesting things about Special Olympics in Canada and how they do things. I was asked to give a workshop on the Athlete Leadership Program to help them get that started in their province. They especially wanted to know about my training and experiences as a Global Messenger and about our state Athlete Input Council. I told them about each of the workshops I have attended and some of the business we have done on our council. They already have Athlete Committees, which are pretty much like our councils.
On one of the days we were there, our host Kim, from Special Olympics Alberta, took us on a wonderful tour up into the mountains around Calgary. We traveled to Banff, which is the largest town located within a national park in Canada. It’s also at the highest altitude, (4800 feet) and in the middle of very beautiful mountains and lakes.
The police in Canada are the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, so many of the souvenirs there have the uniform of the RCMP on them with their bright red jackets. I was hoping to get to meet one of the “Mounties”, but didn’t.
We stayed at a large conference center, which was close to where the Winter Olympics were held in 1988. Do you remember the movie “Cool Runnings”? It was about the Jamaican bobsled team. They competed in the 1988 Olympic Winter Games in Calgary.
We had a wonderful time in this beautiful country and our Canadian hosts were wonderful. It was fun getting to meet and speak with the Canadian athletes. They are sending a very large delegation to Special Olympics World Winter Games this February in Idaho. I already received some emails from them and hope to see them in Idaho.
I’m looking forward to my next trip to World Winter Games and getting together again with the other eleven International Global Messengers from around the world. We all keep in touch by email, but it will be nice to see them all in person again. We haven’t seen each other since we were together in China last year, but I know many of them have been very busy traveling all over to events and speaking engagements too. The trip to Idaho in February will be my last official function as an International Global Messenger. It has been a wonderful and very busy two years and it’s hard to believe it will soon be over, but I already have memories that will last a lifetime.
Fellow athletes, please remember I continue to serve on the statewide Athlete Input Council, so if you have any ideas about how we could make Special Olympics in Wisconsin better, please contact me with your ideas. I promise I will pass along your ideas and opinions to the people in Madison.
Traveling Martha
International Global Messenger
Martha Hill with the Alberta Floor Hockey Team of the year