Minister Commends Volunteers

The P.E.I. Minister responsible for sport and for volunteers has high praise for Islanders who pitched in to make last week's Special Olympic Winter Games a success in the province.

Minister Elmer MacFadyen said that the added pressures on the event brought on by the severe winter blizzard resulted in a wonderful response from Islanders. "I was very impressed with the ability of the whole organizing committee to be able to shift gears, juggle activities and responsibilities, and to meet the needs of the Games athletes and officials."

The Minister had special praise for the many people in the community who jumped in to fill needs when schedules were disrupted and many of the planned volunteer workforce were unable to reach venues owing to weather conditions. "The Games had needs that were not anticipated, and lots of people rolled up their sleeves and pitched in whereever they were needed. We had people working flat-out for four or five days to make sure that the experience for the hundreds of athletes would not be spoiled by the weather. I want to thank all of those people who assisted with the games in any capacity, because I think we were able to show the Island at its best even when the weather was at its worst. It was a real team effort," said the Minister.

The blizzard saw several events in the games postponed as travel to some venues became impossible, but all sports were completed and medals were awarded in all of the events held on the Island.