An inspirational weekend

Owl's Head Special Olympics 2011 from kish.pisani@gmail.com on Vimeo.

What can I say except it was a very cool weekend at the Quebec Special Olympics Winter Games. We are so proud of our TEAM....we had five athletes attend and six medals. The alpine ski competition was made up of the best Special Olympics skiers in he province!

Louis was amazing...almost too amazing. Something "clicked" with his technique in the last week and he improved tremendously. The first run on Friday was for divisioning and he nailed it! So much so that he jumped up in a division, which meant more competition. We were so proud that the came in 4th or 5th in all three of the races. But more importantly, he was there to cheer on his teammates, one of which won silver in their division -- twice! He lived the Special Olympics oath..."Let me win, but if I cannot win, let me brave in the attempt." He was so happy for his teammates (as you can see from the video) and we are so happy that he is such a good sport.

We asked him on Sunday night what his favorite part of the weekend was...thinking he would say skiing. He said "my friends." That's what it's all about.

He had a great time sleeping in a school classroom with his team...eating meals, going to a dance and the most amazing opening and closing ceremonies. All the ceremonies were in French which made it difficult for some of us, but in a strange way, we could understand it all.

We can't say enough about the power, inspiration and pure joy that comes from watching these athletes...all of them.