THUNDER BAY - Special Olympian, Tannia Falla, could barely contain her excitement about getting the opportunity to carry the torch along with her fellow athletes.
“I’m going to have fun and do my best,” she said. “I am really excited. It feels exciting. Really exciting.”
Falla was one of dozens of Special Olympic athletes who all got to carry the torch during the Local Law Enforcement Torch Run on Sunday around Chapples Park.
The annual awareness campaign and fundraiser brings together athletes, law enforcement members, coaches, and the public to ensure Special Olympics Thunder Bay can continue to offer 18 different sports for local athletes.
“By raising funds we are able to support the local Special Olympic program and they are able to run these programs and meet the needs of all the different individuals, whether they are young or old, they really try to offer a year-round, well rounded programming,” said Julie Tilbury, zone coordinator for the Law Enforcement Torch Run.
The run has been held in Thunder Bay for a long time, Tilbury added, and the Thunder Bay Police Service wanted to continue to the tradition because of how important it is to the athletes.
“It is a very strong community, it is growing leaps and bounds and having to fill up their programs,” she said. “Probably based on the fact that through the Law Enforcement Torch Run we’ve been running a lot of school-based programs. Athletes here will qualify for the different sports and qualify at the regional level, the provincial level, and hopefully go on to the national level.”
The Special Olympic Games will be hosted by Thunder Bay in 2020 and while it provides local athletes an opportunity to compete in the sports they love, it also provides a lot more than just podium finishes and medals.
“It’s also their social activity,” Tilbury said. “It’s where their friends are, it gives them the supports they need to live in our community, and I think that’s a really special part of it.”
For Falla, who participates in track and field, soccer, basketball, and bocce ball, playing, training, and competing fills her with positivity.
“I like Special Olympics because it’s a lot of fun and I like my friends and I like my coaches,” she said. “I have so much and playing the games, playing soccer, and hanging out with my friends.”
And that positivity found in all the athletes who cheered and clapped during the torch run is contagious, which is something Tilbury said she and members of the Police Service are very grateful to experience.
“The athletes do more for us than we do for them,” she said. “Because you’ve never been in a more positive place and in our line of work, sometimes it’s nice to be there.”
