Baby it's cold outside...and that means

Lobster Dip, P and G campaign, and Winter Games. It doesn't get much better than that. Our 22nd annual Lobster Dip is fast approaching but you still have time to register. Visit our web site at http://www.specialolympicsmaine.org/ to sign up or simply call our state office at 879-0489. Teams and individual dippers welcomed, costumes encouraged. $100 minimum to dip. Hot showers, food, music at post dip party. Chicken dip for those too chicken to go in. You still need to raise at least $100 but instead of taking the plunge in to the icy waters of the Atlantic you can sit in our chicken coop by the warm fire. Contatct us now tp register and we will see you at the Brunswick Hotel on January 1st. Check in at 10:30 and the dip is at Noon sharp!!!!!

P and G: Coupons for a Cause! For every P&GbrandSAVER coupon redeemed from your local newspaper on Sunday, 12/27/09, a 3 cent donation will be made to Special Olympics. The more you save, the bigger the impact you have to change a life today. To find your local newspaper that carries the P&GbrandSAVER coupon book please click below.
http://www.pgeverydaysolutions.com/pgeds/brandsaver-coupons.jsp.

And Winter Games at Sugarloaf USA January 31st through February 2nd. Check out our web site for further details on all of the above. http://www.specialolympicsmaine.org/

Special Olympics...there is no off season!

Hey Gang, Sorry to take so long to write. It's always busy and crazy here. We have so many cool and exciting things going on and coming up. It never ends here! A couple of weeks ago we held our 25th annual Maine Law Enforcement Torch Run Kick Off Conference in Wells. We had over 100 members of ME Law Enforcement in attendance as well as several athletes. The event started with a very exciting Unified Swim Meet with SOME athletes and officers paired up for competition. So much fun...many of the ladies commented how much they missed "Bull" this year though! A few prestigious awards were given out at the annual athlete luncheon. Tom Harriman of Oxford County Sheriffs Dept received the Unsung Hero awards, Colin Cougle of the Bangor area was inducted in to the Hall of Fame and Mari Smith from Freeport PD received our highest honor...the Bob Bell award. Congratulations to all of our winners. I think 2009 is off to an excellent start and we are going to have a very successful run this year.

Our SOME basketball tournaments in Central and Southern Maine are just around the corner. The Northern Maine tournament has already been held. The Central ME one will be held at the Old Town YMCA March 25th and will offer team play and basketball skills competition. The Southern Maine tournament will take place April 4th at USM in Gorham and will offer the same. Over 250 athletes are signed up for the Southern ME tournament! Wow!

This Saturday night should prove to be a ton of fun as Lewiston Police Dept takes on the Lewiston Fire Dept in their first annual Battle of the Badges to benefit SOME! Tickets can be purchased at the door for a small $5 donation. T-shirts and concessions will also be on sale. Hope to see you there. I think it is going to be a fun fight...I mean night!

We have Harley Raffle Tickets! they are only $20 each and all proceeds go to SOME. The bike is a 2009 soft tail classic! Only 2500 tickets printed. Call us at 879-0489 or visit our web site at www.specialolympicsmaine.org

03-31-09 Mark your calendars because this is the day we are going to spread the word to end the word. Make posters for your schools or work place with a big red R and a line through it and www.r-word.org on the bottom.

Finally- We are excited to announce that DVM sports/action photographers are going to be on hand at several events to take some awesome pictures! You can purchase photos during event or online later by visiting our web site and clicking on theri link. As of today they will be at our Southern Maine Basketball Tournament April 4th at USM, our State Swim Meet at Bates College in Lewiston April 17th and our State Summer Games at UMO on June 6th. I can't wait until you see these pictures. If you know for sure that you are intereswted in purchasing photos you can even ask the photographers to focus on your team or on individual athletes to be sure you get a lot of great shots.

That's it for today. I'll get back to you soon. Don't forget to join us on Facebook for up to the minute events, videos, discussions and more.

Winter games have come and gone...lets get ready for Orono

The games were awesome! I hope everyone had just as much fun as I did...if not more. It was extrememly cold but it didn't seem to stop or even slow down anyone involved. What a great success. Thanks so much to all of the volunteers, coaches, families, and friends and athletes for a great event. Can't wait to see you in Orono!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2009 already. Wow, time flies when you are having a blast. Speaking of having a blast, Special Olympics Maine has kicked off 2009 with a record breaking event. The 21st annual Lobster Dip brought in over $50,000 and over 300 dippers. What an awesome way to start off the New Year. Especially considering the economy right now. It's pretty scary. We are looking at making so many changes this year to cut costs in order to still be able to provide awesome programs for our athletes. It's going to be a tough year and we appreciate all of the help from everyone who participated in this years dip and from everyone who is currently planning to donate or volunteer for Special Olympics Maine.

We are going to need all the help we can get.

We are currently making plans for our 25th anniversary of the
Maine Law Enforcement Torch Run. That is so exciting to me. Although we have several new members, it is always amazing to me the amount of participants who have actually taken part since the beginning or close to it. That is dedication. The Torch Run can be very stressful at times and we just can't thank those people enough for their continued hard work. Congratulations on 25 years. Wow!!!

Hey, do ride a motorcycle or do you know someone who does? We are planning to hold the first ever Maine Iron Torch Ride this fall. This will be a huge motorcycle event with a great ride, and hopefully music, food, vendors, and a car show. Let me know if you have any interest in this very exciting event.

Our winter games are just around the corner. January 25-27th 500 athletes will be competing at Sugarloaf in a variety of winter sports events. I'll keep you posted.

That's it for today. Take care.

PS check out my son Noah in the red jacket above. He is pictured with Miss Maine Teen Jordan Shiers, and his friends Padraic owens and Dylan Weeks all of Gorham. The boys raised over $1300 for SOME!!!

Hey, how are ya

If you look at the large photo above in the header of this blog you will see a picture of Dana Dean, a young woman who competes in Special Olympics Maine. Look to the right and you will see an old photo of her at Winter Games. Just thought this was a cute photo. Reminds me of how old I am...birthday was last Tuesday. Ughhhh!!!!!

Anyway, Christmas is coming and I am thrilled. Macy's sent us a coupon for 20% savings this week in their store and online so if you would like one let me know and I can forward it to you right away.

I still have plenty of Clynk bags available for anyone willing to fill one for us. Let me know. Also still looking for dippers for the upcoming Lobster Dip. Call now...I mean it...right now...879-0489!

Hey, Karen Matthews...our Area Manager in Knox/Waldo county is retiring as of next week. A huge thank you to her for all of her years of hard work and dedication to our program. And a big thank you to the co-area managers taking her place Tammy Joy and Delisa Morong.

Still looking for old photos of SOME and also video please and favorite SOME short stories. Share soon. Thanks. Time to head home. I have a bad cold.

Congrats

Good Morning. I have a few congratulation wishes to send out. First, our 4 World Games athletes have left for their Olympic training camp in Colorado. They will be there all week and I am sure it will be an awesome experience. Also, congratulations to Jordan Shiers for being selected as the new Miss Maine Teen. She is an assistant Special O coach in Gorham and her brother is a Special Olympic Maine athlete. Way to go Jordan!!!! Jordan and her mom Lisa, as well as Special Olympics athlete Holley Beaumier were also recently selected to represent Maine at the Global Youth Summit in Idaho in February. They will join 152 other youth from around the world to discuss Special Olympics and how to get teenagers more involved with the program and with people with intellectual disabilties. This is an awesome opportunity and we are very excited that they were chosen.