Special mission to raise €5m for athletes

THE Special Olympics launched a national fundraising drive yesterday to raise €5 million to encourage more athletes to get involved ahead of the world games.

Chief executive officer Mary Davis said the money will be used to boost athlete numbers from 11,000 to 14,000 and to help fund the Irish delegation competing in the world games in China in October.

The cost of equipping and sending the 200-strong Irish delegation to Shanghai could top €1 million, she said.

But the ultimate aim of Special Olympics is to reach all of the 34,000 people identified with a learning disability over the next eight years, she said.

She was speaking at the first regional launch of the Support an Athlete campaign hosted at the headquarters of the Irish Examiner’s parent company, Thomas Crosbie Holdings (TCH).

TCH chairman Alan Crosbie, whose second cousin, Ruth O’Mahony, will represent Ireland in golf at the world games, said he was delighted to make the building available for the launch.

Ms Davis said before the 2003 games in Dublin, about 8,000 athletes were involved in Special Olympics.

“We have between 11,000 and 12,000 people involved in various sports,” she said.

“We have about 17,000 volunteers on our database. That is a huge increase in a short space of time. But we still have a way to go to reach everyone.”

The organisation hopes to raise €5 million over the coming months to meet its annual running costs.

But constant fundraising is needed to strengthen and expand our activities and to encourage more people to get involved, she said.

Government funding accounts for about 13% of Special Olympics’ budget.

Ms Davis acknowledged a €2 million contribution in December’s budget but said she hoped that Government would eventually meet 50% of the organisation’s annual running costs.

Fifteen Special Olympians from Cork attended yesterday’s launch. They are part of the 145-strong Irish team who will travel as part of the 200-person delegation to Shanghai in October.

Soprano Cara O’Sullivan starred in a concert in Cork’s City Hall last night with all proceeds going to the Special Olympics and a Schools’ No Uniform Day will take place on March 9.

Special Olympic volunteers and athletes will collect money at traffic calming points outside the country’s towns and villages in a nationwide ‘Road to China’ collection on April 27.

* www.specialolympics.ie