{"id":23474,"date":"2019-04-04T19:55:24","date_gmt":"2019-04-04T23:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23474"},"modified":"2019-04-04T19:55:32","modified_gmt":"2019-04-04T23:55:32","slug":"brocks-banter-lighting-a-spark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/brocks-banter-lighting-a-spark\/","title":{"rendered":"BROCK’S BANTER: Lighting a Spark"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My parents can never be criticized for\ntheir lack of persistence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When they set their minds to do something,\nthey were \u2013 and, sometimes, still are \u2013 almost single-mindedly determined to\nmake it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, sometimes, despite their best\nefforts, the raw material just isn\u2019t there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Case in point: me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the obvious roadblocks in their\nway \u2013 you know, things like aptitude and interest \u2013 they were determined to\nturn me into an athlete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, how they tried.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the time I was old enough for school,\nmy first day camp over the summer holidays was spent at a sports camp run by a\nnow defunct area golf course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sure, there were some arts and crafts\ninvolved, an activity that was more my speed, but most of the rest of time was\nconsumed by golf, tennis and squash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Truth be told, I couldn\u2019t have cared less.\nThe only pleasant memories I had of the experience were, during lunch time,\nwatching the instructors dole out our lunches and pour ketchup on our plates\nfrom a crystal flower vase. Yes, apparently it was a fancy establishment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When that didn\u2019t work, my next few summers\nwere spent at another sports camp run by a local private school. This place\ntried to be deceptive with their plans, camouflaging their true intentions by\nwrapping everything up in a J.R.R. Tolkien theme, but the truth was soon\nrevealed. Outside of the few moments we spent hearing (endlessly) about the\nHobbit and making Lord of the Rings-related widgets out of papier m\u00e2ch\u00e9, we\nwere put through our paces on the soccer field, the baseball diamond and,\nhorror of horrors, the track. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite my natural aversion to most things\nathletic, I persevered at this place for four consecutive summers. If it wasn\u2019t\nfor the good company I enjoyed at the camp, to this day I would be convinced I\nstuck it out just out of spite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, all good things had to come to an end\nand I rounded out my summer day camp career at yet another sports camp, which\ndivided its time with days split between a golf course and a tennis club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Truth be told, it was here I was\nintroduced to tennis, the only sport in which I actually enjoy participating; I\nstill don\u2019t personally see the point in grabbing a stick, thwacking a ball, and\nchasing it into a hole in the ground. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That being said, however, I was not fully\nimmune to the joys of sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in elementary school, I became fast\nfriends with one of my peers who happened to have special needs. His life was\nsometimes a challenged and I was intrigued by how he shouldered it all while\nmaintaining than elusive spark of joy, I began talking with him to find out\nmore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our friendship blossomed to the extent\nthat when he was selected by the Special Olympics to go to the Regional meet,\nhe asked if I could be one of the volunteers to go along and help the school\u2019s\nteam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given my own track record, I was dubious\nas to how much help I could actually be in this endeavour, but friendship\neventually won the day and we set out on the bus to Whitchurch-Stouffville.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I saw was transformative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was met by a friend who was in his\nelement, excelling in ways he hadn\u2019t been able to experience within the\nconfines of our school, and making it to the podium several times. When one\ntrack event came around in which he needed my assistance, I thought it was\ngoing to be a disaster. Somehow, and I\u2019m sure I was no help whatsoever, he\nplaced second and the joy was overwhelming not only to witness but also be a\npart of. Not only was the joy overwhelming, but so was the sense and look of\nachievement that I had never seen before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately, I have had many more opportunities since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the subject of\njoy, it rubs off on you. In this line of work, I have had many opportunities to\ncover Special Olympics-related events, whether they are athletic competitions\nthemselves, fundraising events, or special outreach campaigns, and there hasn\u2019t\nbeen one yet that hasn\u2019t made me feel at least some of those feelings I had on\nthat unlikely day in Whitchurch-Stouffville.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mission of\nSpecial Olympics is simple: enriching the lives of Canadians with an\nintellectual disability through sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, if you\u2019ve been\ninvolved with the organization, whether as an athlete, parent, volunteer,\nfundraiser, or even a fan, you know that it is so much more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As they say, every\ncloud has its silver lining and it has been heartening in recent days to hear\nthe passionate outcry that has been taking place south of our border over the\nthreatened cut of federal funding to Special Olympics programming in the\ncountry that started it all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. Education\nSecretary Betsy DeVos defended her recommendation to slash her government\u2019s\nfunding of the Special Olympics completely by arguing that as Special Olympics\nis, at the end of the day, a private organization, they can adequately raise\nfunds for themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naturally, the\nresponse was swift and to the point. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although her\nrecommendations had little chance of coming into law due to the balance of\npower, the outcry and reasoned arguments that ensued seemed to have struck a\nchord in the heart of a place where reason seems to matter less and less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thankfully, here at\nhome, there is more of a buy-in from our lawmakers, and this buy-in is so\nessential; it\u2019s a vote of confidence and a shot-in-the-arm for athletes and\nvolunteers who really need it because everyone who gets involved learns so much\nin the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While fundraising is\nindeed a vote of confidence and a good shot in the arm, so too is active\nparticipation from this community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The power of a\ncheering section, or even an individual cheerleader, can\u2019t be underestimated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to\nexperience some joy, and get a reminder of what truly matters, look up the\nSpecial Olympics sport of your choice and come out to cheer on the\nparticipants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you don\u2019t, you might never know the spark it\ncould light within you.<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir My parents can never be criticized for their lack of persistence. When they set their minds to do something, they were \u2013 and, sometimes, still are \u2013 almost single-mindedly determined to make it happen. But, sometimes, despite their best efforts, the raw material just isn\u2019t there. Case in point: me. Despite the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-66C","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 16:51:13","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23474\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}