Is anyone out there?

Good Morning. It's October! As a matter of fact it's already the end of October. My life is just one big blur of work and kids and hockey images. Yes, hockey season is well under way which means that I do not have one free minute...literally. My husband Frank and I are also currently running our second marriage course at our Church so things are certainly hectic.

So, is anybody out there. Is there even one person who is reading this? So much has happened since I last posted. The biggest news of course is the World Games in China. Our athletes have returned home after over two weeks in Shanghai and they did an outstanding job. We are all very proud of them. They each placed within the top five in each of their events and even brought home a couple of bronze and silver and even gold medals. Outstanding. This is a picture of our Equestrian athlete Jacuelyn Guisley getting one of her awards. Every athlete also received one of those adorable panda bears.

In addition to the competition our athletes also had the chance to learn a lot about the culture. They even got to go in to a home of a Chinese family and learned to make dumplings. If you check out the Team USA web site, you can read all of the daily highlights and also look up hundreds, and hundreds of photos. http://www.specialolympicsteamusa.org/ Above, I have posted a photo of our aquatics athlete Keith Draper hanging out with friends before a competition.

Did you know that if you want to have more than one child in China, you have to pay for it? I also learned from our team that unless a building is more than 7 stories high, there are no elevators. Driving is like a free-for-all...just find an empty spot and go and entire families ride on a motorcycle, at once!

Kala Emery, seen above with President Bush, competed in Track and Field events and Robin Sibley was our Bocce Player. Everyone had a great time and did a great job. Yay Maine!!!

BTW...One of our long time Area Managers, Dot Graves of Bangor, won a hometown hero award for her dedication to SOME! Way to go Dot!

That's it for today. Feel free to leave comments...nice ones anyway! Do you have a short SOME story or cool photo you would like to share...let me know and I'll try to post them. LBIRD@maine.rr.com

6 years ago today

I know this is a Special Olympics blog but I just couldn't ignore the significance of the day... 6 years have gone by since that fateful day in NY, PA and Washington. Certainly an event that changed the lives of every American.
So, where were you when it happened and what were you thinking? I was actually on my way to get an x-ray when I heard that the first plane had crashed. I remember getting to the DRs office and telling the technician about it. "Did you hear that some guy crashed his plane in to the World Trade Center?" Little did I know. By the time I got in the car to head home, our Nation was under attack and I was going on with my merry life. I called my mom to tell her about my appointment and her voice sounded so strange. "what's wrong?" I asked. She proceeded to tell me everything and I stepped on the gas to get home to my two year old as quickly as possible. I felt panicked and confused. I was glued to television. I remember calling my husband who was working in NH and begging him to come home. I also remember right in the middle of all of it thinking, OMG we need milk, and rushing to the store to be sure we had everything we needed. I don't know what I thought was going to happen but I knew I was going to be prepared.
Funny what people do. Now, six years ago I still clearly remember all of the details of that day and all of the emotions. I pray that we never have another day like that one. That day changed the lives of all of us. Never forget. God Bless America.

September already?

How on earth did that happen? I swear the summers get shorter every year. I hope all of you had an awesome time and had a chance to enjoy the warm weather, spend time with family and friends, and rest up for all of the exciting Special Olympics events that are coming.
It's always funny to me that there isn't some sort of New Years Eve celebration for September. It always feels like a new year. Kids are starting a new year at school, and Special Olympics picks up again at full speed with tons of cool things to do. September has been a little sad for me so far because my baby has gone off to Kindergarten. He is such a big boy now. My 8 year old has also entered a new school, "where the bigger kids go", he says. Time sure does fly.

Anyway, tonight is the final night for our sailing program. What a blast everyone had. If you haven't checked out the program you really should. It runs on Monday nights all summer and you would not beleive the accomplishments these athletes have made. Incredibly exciting.

Camp is also wrapping up and Ian will soon be returning to the office. I have also returned to the office from 9-11 each day which is very exciting after nine years of working at home full time. The only problem was that after 9 years of working at home I had accumulated a lot of pairs of pajammas and not many work clothes. My husband wasn't thrilled when I told him I also needed to go "school shopping"!

Mark is busy right now on golf events...Individual skills on the 8th in Skowhegan, Unified tournament on the 12th in Madison, and Individual 9 hole on the 22nd in Auburn.

September also means that soccer is just around the corner as well as our annual state equestrian competition in Skowhegan on the September 29th.

And of course, plans are already underway for Winter Games!

One of the most exciting events this month is the world games in China! I will post a seperate blog on that with lots of cool details.
I really just wanted to check in. Have a great week.

Irving Rocks!!!

Hey everyone. Sorry for the delay. I have been waiting for the results from our event at Irvings so that I can share them with everyone. Well, we had a record breaking year and raised $143,000!!!!! I am beyond excited with this news. As many of you know, in addition to the actual gas pumping event, Irving employees sold clings for the entire month prior to Serve and Protect. I was shocked to hear that there were stores in Maine that sold over 4,000 clings. As a matter of fact, the Biddeford store sold over 7000!!!!!! That is amazing. Irving employees really went above and beyond the call of duty with their efforts. Many of them came up with some clever gimicks in their stores and many extra fund raising efforts. The other two incredible parts to this story are the Maine Law Enforcement members and the SOME athletes and coaches who went to each location to help with the fundraising. Many even used vacation time to participate. A huge thank you to everyone who helped make this event such a huge success and a special thank you to Officer Chris Gardner and Irving Rep Kyle Burrell who worked so hard to pull everything together. What an exciting year! I am already hearing from people on ideas that they have for next year.

On another note, just because it's summer don't think that there is nothing going on in the world of Special Olympics. Our sailing program in Portland is well underway, golf is taking place, and next week will be the annual ALL STAR SOCCER TOURNAMENT to benefit SOME. Maine's top high school soccer graduates will be playing on Tuesday July 31st at Westbrook High School. Women's games are at 6 and Men's at 8. Feel free to join us in Westbrook to watch an awesome night of soccer competition. You can call Mark Capano at 879-0489 for more info.

Hey, speaking of Mark...last week he, along with our Maine Team USA athletes and coaches, traveled to Tennessee for a training camp for the upcoming world games in China. They had an awesome trip and feel more ready than ever to compete at this World Class event. Rockland Police Officer Troy Peasely and SOME athlete Chris Oster have both been selected to run in the LETR Final Leg for the two weeks preceding the games. What an exciting time it is for all of us.

Don't forget that we still have Harley raffle tickets and very cool torch run t-shirts that have been compressed in to the shape of a torch, for sale. Tickets are $20 each and t-shirts are $10. Give me a call at 839-5578 to purchase yours.

I guess that is all for today. I am heading out for vacation in a couple of days to go camping with the family. Should be fun. Hope for great weather.