The City of St. Albert will ensure the legacy of the 2012 Special Olympics Canada Winter Games endures beyond last week’s sporting events and festivities.
The city announced on Monday the creation of the Special Olympics Legacy Initiative, for which council had already set aside money during budget deliberations last year. At the time city council endorsed a total of $50,000 for a legacy — half for capital expenditures and half for operational.
That legacy will feature three components, one that will be funded from any surplus realized by the Games. The first will be two pieces of art — one case for memorabilia collected from all major sporting events St. Albert has hosted, and a second piece of public art that has yet to be decided on. The $25,000 in operational funds will go towards what the city calls a community inclusiveness program, which it says will assist individuals with developmental disabilities with job creation.
Surplus funds from the Games will go towards the Sports Legacy Program to ensure there are programs available locally for Special Olympics athletes.
“It sounds great,” said Games co-chair Dan MacLennan. “I like all of that. It sounds good, particularly the sports legacy.”
Recreation director Monique St. Louis said the sports legacy will be co-ordinated between Special Olympics Alberta and the local chapter to ensure there are more sports in which local athletes can participate.
“Our chapter focuses on summer events and my guess is they might look at more support for winter sports like curling,” St. Louis said.
St. Louis described the community inclusiveness program as an initiative on the part of Mayor Nolan Crouse.
“We’re working with community organizations to help develop that,” St. Louis said.
Crouse didn’t have a specific vision for the program yet but wanted to encourage employment opportunities for people with developmental disabilities in the community.
“It helps employers with training and job places, or maybe a lunch or something. How do you acknowledge all of the people involved?” Crouse said.
The case for memorabilia will include the torches used in past events in St. Albert, such as last week’s Games, the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics torch run, the Alberta 55-Plus Winter Games as well as previous provincial and national sporting events the city has hosted.
The public art will be solicited through a normal public art process. While there is no vision yet, Crouse had a few thoughts on what it could include.
“It would be nice if it included everybody’s name that was here,” Crouse said. “I saw one in Australia. It was a very beautiful piece of public art that is etched forever.”
