Photo courtesy of Abby Goodwin, Special Olympics NWT
After a second successful Try-It Day in Hay River on Feb. 29, Special Olympics NWT is still waiting for word from potential volunteers who may be interested in helping to offer some programming in the community.
However, like just about everything else that is being affected by COVID-19.
"We did send a message contacting everybody who had volunteered and we really appreciate all the ones that came out," said Lynn Elkin, the executive director of Special Olympics NWT in Yellowknife. "We haven't heard back from anybody yet, so we are assuming that is obviously because people are dealing with the virus. And we hope that once this passes that we will be able to see things get going again."
Speaking to The Hub on March 25, Elkin noted that Special Olympics NWT has also followed the direction of the national and international organizations, and basically closed down its programs.
"We generally finish in mid-May and at this point it's looking like things won't really be open," she said. "And with the schools closed, we're hoping in the fall we'll be back up and able to run things. So we'll give people some time to deal with this very important issue and then in the summer we'll be in touch. We hope that by that time things will have moved along."
Special Olympics NWT had hoped to start a track and field program in Hay River by mid-April, if volunteers had stepped forward.
"I mean nothing is going to start mid-April," said Elkin.
She still thinks there's interest and potential to start programming in Hay River, but the earliest would be in the fall.
The main goal of the Try-It Day on Feb. 29 was to gauge the interest of potential volunteers to run programming in Hay River.
Seven potential volunteers showed up, which was more than the several at the first Try-It Day in December of 2018.
The most recent Try-It Day also attracted 11 athletes.
Special Olympics offers sports programming for people with intellectual disabilities.