London cheers for Special Olympics athletes

More than 1,000 Thames Valley students are taking part in Special Olympics events this week. CTV London’s Sean Irvine reports.

More than 1,000 students in the Thames Valley District School Board are participating in the Special Olympics this week.

The event is taking place at Alumni Stadium.

Among the athletes is Dessi Mosburger of Innerkip Central School.

Her teacher said she had been waiting for her chance, “Well, she started smiling yesterday when we were talking about coming today. And she smiled all morning.”

For her part, Dessi could not wait to show her parents, and a CTV News camera, her trio of ribbons.

“Mom will be so happy for me, and so will my Daddy!” said Dessi.

Her excitement was made possible by a long list of athletes.

“We have 86 elementary schools represented today, and we have 24 secondary schools tomorrow,” said Janell Hurlbut, a learning coordinator for special education. “In all, we have over 160 volunteers who will help pull off this event.”

The volunteers include peer helpers, often from the same school or class.

“I want to support everyone in our school who takes part in this. And it’s pretty fun for me, and seeing everyone’s faces,” said helper Brody Hack.

Hack was assisting Liam Horner, a veteran of the Special Olympics.

“I’ve done this a few times,” he told CTV News.

But as exciting as participating was, Liam was more excited to see familiar faces, “Just to have fun and see friends.”

His father, James, agreed, “It gets him out and gets him active. He is usually excited for it. A lot of times he is anxious about things, and this helps channel that anxiousness into something constructive and shows people that he’s just as good as everybody else.”

Parent Lindsay Burdis echoed the thought, adding, “To have everybody here, cheering everybody on, it’s a really lovely environment.”