The 36th annual Winter Games begin Sunday at Sugarloaf.
CARRABASSETT VALLEY – With only two and a half days to go before Sunday afternoon’s start of the 36th annual Special Olympics Maine Winter Games, the priority Thursday was on making and transporting snow.
One hundred tons of snow, to be precise.
With temperatures in the 30s and 40s forecast for today and tomorrow, Sugarloaf Mountain snowmakers hurriedly made three football fields worth of snow for the games, and Jordan Lumber Trucking Co. vehicles prepared to haul it down the mountain to almost-bare Nordic trails.
Special Olympics Maine CEO Phil Geelhoed said that without the manufactured snow, approximately 250 Nordic athletes coming to the games would be unable to compete.
The help Special Olympics Maine was receiving from Sugarloaf and Jordan Lumber is “a great example of how the folks up here make (the games) happen,” said Geelhoed.
“The Sugarloaf community knows no bounds,” said games Director Steve Pierce, who noted that approximately 700 volunteers were at Sugarloaf to help with the competitions. Even the food at the games’ opening banquet is donated.
“Until anybody challenges me, I’d say it’s the largest potluck in the state of Maine,” said Pierce of the dinner.
To welcome almost 900 athletes, coaches and family members staying at Sugarloaf, area families are currently in the process of putting hundreds of macaroni and cheese, pot pie, chop suey and other casseroles together, to be served family style Sunday night at the games’ annual Community Supper.
With a mission of providing “year-round training and competitive programs to persons with intellectual disabilities,” the Special Olympics Maine Winter Games are really the culmination of months, if not years, of preparation on the part of the 500 competing athletes. They are asked to start training for their winter events with local Special Olympics Maine chapters at least 10 weeks prior to the games. But many competitors go above and beyond those requirements, said Geelhoed, and start training as soon as the annual Summer Games end.
“We’ve got athletes who have been looking forward to this event from the time they unpack from our Summer Games,” he said. “This is something that is anticipated for many months prior to arrival.”
For Mistress of Ceremonies Lisa Bird, all the events are exciting. “Everything (at the games) is a highlight,” she said. “You go to an event and say this is it – everything there is just so exciting – because it’s so exciting for the athletes.”
“You see people working so hard and doing their best, and they’re just as happy to come in third as to come in first,” Bird said. “To see the crowd cheering on everybody from first to last place is just so awesome.”
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