Don Hammell is in the Seton Hospital and is recovering from a serious bout with Pneumonia and a few other things. He is in room 418 . His phone is 324-1418. Im sure Don would like to hear from us with a visit or a phone call. Please keep him in your thoughts.

Hot off the press
April 1. Is our big day. This is our day for the Special Olympics!!! For you who have signed up to work, we need to be there by 7 am ready to work. For you who have not signed up, I would like to encourage you to reconsider and let Mike Swayze know that you want to contribute some of your time in this really important function. If you can't work the whole time ( It will be finished by 2 pm) maybe you can come on out and work for a while. Even if you cant work, please try to come out to the Stony Point High School Track for a while and cheer those kids on as they compete in the many events of the Olympics. It is a heart warming sight to see these kids competing in these events, some winning, some not coming in First, all of them are trying as hard as they can and enjoy being a part of this spectacle. I guarantee if you will just come out for a little while, you will be rewarded with a warm feeling of joy when you see the faces of these kids as they compete and are just happy to be there.
I understand that Jeff Andresen will be our announcer this year. Lori Scott will be on the Computer and she has asked that some of you computer nerds come on up to the booth and help her since this is her first year at this task. Scott Evans will be there in the Booth, taking up space!!!!
Again this year, as in the past Nine years, Jan Sartain will be the overall meet coordinator. Jan spends a lot of time pre-planning this Special Olympics event for us and is highly dedicated to the Spirit of Special Olympics.
The following is a list of Key personnel who will make sure this event goes on in an orderly manner: Brad Thorne – Track Competition Director …. Scott Swindell—Field Events , Natalie Gunter—Starter , Geri Swanson ( with Mike Swayze’s office)--- Awards , assisted by Dr. Guillory , Dr. Wilson – official Photographer , Charlie Dromgoole—News Director , Will Peckham—Volunteer coordinator, Nancy Yawn – Opening ceremonies, Scott Bennet- EMT. ---Medical Tech., The Stony Point Band Boosters will man the concessions booth, Sooooo--- come on out Saturday Morning and help us make this another Successful Special Olympics—You will be glad you did.

Last week Fred Daler introduced to us Joan Schroeder—Program Director for Ride On Center for Kids (R>O>C>K). As she explained in her presentation, ROCK was started in 1998 by Nancy O’Meara in Georgetown when she saw a need for a unique Therapy for Austistic and physically and emotionally Kids. This therapy consists of plain ole Riding Horseback—the program has three phases—Hippo-Therapy (riding a horse), Thereapeutic riding, and an education program. Their Physical plant consists of a 42,000 Sq. Ft. building with an arena--- and 17 horses. They have 7 people on Staff and have 106 kids enrolled. They also depend heavily on volunteer help. This is a very unique approach to therapy and apparently works quite well.. Thanx to Fred and Joan for a good program. ,