North Bay Police Chief Paul Cook, Battalion Head Coach Stan Butler and Special Olympics Ontario CEO Glenn MacDonell show off red laces as part of a campaign to support the North Bay 2015 Special Olympics Ontario Winter Games. PHOTO BY CHRIS DAWSON.
As a father, Stan Butler was hoping his young daughter could be involved in competitive sports.
But at a young age, Butler realized that his daughter’s intellectual disability wasn’t going to allow her to play sports like he did.
“She was playing on a soccer team, and she was a goalie,” Butler recalled.
“She let in a goal that wasn’t very good and some parent near me said ‘that goalie isn’t very good’ and I realized at that time as much as I wanted her to play sports, I wasn’t putting her in a good situation.”
Fast forward 18 years and Sara Butler has become an established Special Olympian, capturing medals competing in hockey, figure skating, baseball and rowing.
He believes her life changed when she got involved in Special Olympics.
“I watched her develop her love for the game and I think a lot of that is when your Dad is in sports and she’s at the rink all the time she’s used to that and I watched her play in an environment that’s extremely safe and she could play and she could compete but in an environment where you didn’t have some nasty parents passing judgement. It’s just been great for her self confidence,” said Butler.
That connection made Stan Butler the perfect fit as the Honourary Games Coach of the 2015 Special Olympics Ontario Winter Games.
On Thursday, Special Olympics Ontario along with Butler and the North Bay Police launched the Special Olympics “Change of Champions” Campaign at Memorial Gardens.
The campaign is intended to create awareness and raise funds for the Winter Games which take place from January 29th to February 1st in North Bay. The day will conclude with a Red Lace Day OHL game (versus Oshawa) where Battalion players will sport Red Laces for their game to support the cause.
Special Olympics Ontario CEO Glenn MacDonell says supporters can go online to www.specialolympics2015games.com and purchase red laces and help paint North Bay red.
“I think on October 23rd we are hoping to see everybody in North Bay wearing red laces in their shoes, that’s really our number one signature, you see there’s ‘Special Olympics’ on the laces, it’s an attention grabber, it’s to get people to thinking a little bit about the games coming up and it’s an easy way for them to get involved,” said MacDonell
With the games less than 4 months away McDonell estimates they are close to the halfway point of raising the $400,000 fundraising goal.
Cook and MacDonell show off their fancy red laces. PHOTO BY CHRIS DAWSON.
