Special Olympians return

ZIZ Sports…July 7 2011 – Nevis’ Special Olympics athletes returned home yesterday at the Charlestown port. They received a warm welcome by a delegate which included Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Sports. Mr. Alstead Pemberton; President of the Nevis Amateur Athletics Association-Lester Blackett, along with parents and relatives of the athletes.

A brief ceremony was held at the main Gazebo which was chaired by PS Pemberton. In his remarks, Mr. Pemberton lauded the efforts and the achievements of the sportsmen and women on Nevis. ‘Even as I speak, Kieran Powell is representing the West Indies at the test level—the sixth Nevisian to do so and Adrian Williams is presently representing St.Kitts and Nevis at the world games”. He congratulated them warmly on behalf of Minister Daniel, the Premier of Nevis and the entire Nevis Island Administration.

He applauded the efforts of the special athletes and asked for the general public to continue to support them in whatever way possible.

NAAA chief Lester Blackette personally shook the hands of all of the athletes and congratulated them for their achievements in bringing back several Bronze medals.

Supervisor of the Special Education Unit, Mrs. Violet Clarke who also journeyed to Athens, Greece with the team, made a passionate plea for the continued support of the Special children. She spoke of lessons learnt in Greece and noted that she was amazed at seeing persons in wheel chairs and persons with twisted muscles etc competing and winning in the process. She commended her athletes as being all winners.

Mr. Randolph Boddie, President of the local Special Olympics Association, gave an overview of the success of the Nevisian athletes:

He noted that this year they placed emphasis on exposing a new set of athletes and not placing an emphasis on winning gold medals.

Verinicia Jeminez – bronze in the bocce mixed doubles and fourth place in the female single in bocce
Ashimo Freeman – bronze in the 4 x1 relay
Cisco Phillip – bronze in the 4 x 1 relay and bronze in the 100 meters
Valencia Wilkinson – bronze in the 4 x1 relay and bronze in the 200 meters

He noted that 171 countries participated; there were 6,748 athletes; 2,059 coaches, heads of delegates and officials. He congratulated them on their outstanding performance.

Outstanding supporter of the Special Olympics fund raising committee, Thelma TC Claxton who is also the Vice President of the Queen City Taxi Association, was praised for her tremendous efforts in helping the team get to Athens. She stated that she loved the children and that she has established a pool of annual donors to the cause and will continue to support the children in every way possible.

Randolph Boddie delivered the vote of thanks after which the athletes were paraded through the streets of Charlestown in true motorcade style.

They later received a sumptuous lunch at the Pinneys beach Hotel compliments of the Nevis Island Administration.