by Kathy Johnson
Shelburne County’s Special Olympians are headed to the Nova Scotia Summer Games in Antigonish on Friday, July 6.
“They’re a great bunch of athletes,” said Al Videto, who is the ‘chef de mission.’
“We have teenagers to adults and they’re all very excited to be going,” said Videto. “They get to go away for three days, meet their peers, socialize, go to a dance and a pizza party… it’s a lot of hard work but at the end of the day you feel good about it.”
The 14 athletes, who will compete in soccer and bocce, have been practising for two months now, said Videto, with high school students Cameron Jesso and Jessica Atwood volunteering their time to coach soccer. Behind the bench for the bocce team are Leeann Penney and Jeanie Videto.
Two mission staff will also accompany the team to the games, being held at St. FX University.
The team will be leaving Heritage Hall at 7:30 Friday morning, said Videto, welcoming everyone to come and give the team a happy send-off.
