Message from the CEO

Carolyn shares her thoughts on the challenging Covid-19 situation, says farewell to departing staff members and welcomes new staff to our SONZ whānau.

Graeme Bain: 26 years with SONZ

Retiring after 26 years helping thousands of athletes discover the joy of sports, Graeme talks about the many highlights of his time with Special Olympics.

Tiah gains confidence through Young Athletes

After almost four months in lockdown, 4-year-old Tiah with Down syndrome is overcoming her shyness through sport and play.

Moxon family bowls for gold at National Summer Games

Three generations of the Moxon family aren’t letting any challenges stop them in their journey to compete together in ten-pin bowling this December.

Health Leaders: Return to training safely

James Wilson shares advice for how to stay safe if you’re returning to training and Scot Jackson talks about the importance of staying hydrated when it’s hot.

Balance is better coaches corner

Gary Peacham shares advice for coaches navigating training during omicron and talks about the importance of coaches looking after their wellbeing, as well as their athletes.

Message from the CEO

4 March 2022

Carolyn Young CEO

Kia ora koutou,

Is it too late to say Happy New Year? I hope that the start of 2022 has been kind to you. While for all of us there are a lot of challenges and uncertainty presented by Covid, I hope we can apply our learnings from 2020 and 2021 as we progress through the new year.

On 11 February we celebrated 300 days to go until the start of the Freemasons New Zealand Special Olympics National Summer Games (the Games). The countdown is on (again)! I know with Covid impacting events and trainings it’s hard to get excited, but we are looking forward to the Games and crossing our fingers that the situation will be more stable in the second half of the year. Stay tuned as we will have some new and exciting announcements about the Games coming up later in 2022!

The evolving Covid situation is challenging for us all to keep on top of and we’re continuing to update our website with the latest information for clubs, athletes and volunteers.
You can visit our Covid Resouces page here

We have updated our guidelines on the use of masks, so please ensure that you are up to date on the changes. If you have any questions please continue to reach out to your Regional Sports Co-ordinator or the Senior Management team.

We have a number of staff changes this year. We will miss our departing staff and wish them all the best for the future and we are excited to welcome our new staff into our Special Olympics whānau. To learn more about our departing and new staff see below.

Departing and new staff

Graeme Bain and Kathy Dunn
Retirement has been the theme for the start of the year with both Graeme Bain and Kathy Dunn retiring after spending 16 and 13 years respectively with Special Olympics. We will miss them both terribly, but know that it is their time to focus on family and recreation.

Graeme has been a stalwart amongst our RSCs and we all miss him. His contribution to the team, quick humour, understated reflections and all-round good guy will be hard to replace. Included in this Fanletter is an interview with Graeme you can read here. We will miss Kathy terribly, but know she is going to enjoy spending more time with her eight grandchildren and being at their family holiday home in Queenstown.

Asti Farrell
Exciting news for Asti, she is pregnant with her first child and is taking maternity leave from 18 March for 12 months. We wish Asti and her partner Ryan well with the imminent arrival of their baby girl and cannot wait to follow the joy of their new family member.

Asti has done a significant amount of work on the National Summer Games and is devastated that she won’t be here to see them through, but we are hopeful that she is able to come to Hamilton to visit while the Games are on.

Niall Thompson
Niall finished his role as an Auckland RSC at Christmas. Niall has taken up a new role as the Sports Manager at Kirsten School and is looking forward to continuing to engage with Special Olympics in his new role. We wish Niall all the best in his new career.

Paula Winsor
Paula is joining us as the Upper South Island RSC. She has extensive experience working with people with intellectual disabilities and has an extensive history with sport, having represented New Zealand in both Cricket and Hockey, as well as being a school sport coach.

Sarah McDougall
Sarah has started with us as our Finance Manager. Sarah comes to us with extensive experience in finance across Not-For-Profit, Government and small to medium sized businesses.

Liz Fitzgerald
Liz will start with us at the start of April as the Events Director, to provide maternity cover for Asti. Liz comes to us with over 20 years of events experience, she’s spent 3 years with the New Zealand Olympic Committee and prior to that with 12 years at New Zealand Rugby.

Liam Hunt
Liam started with us at the beginning of February as the Upper North Island RSC Lead. Based in Auckland, he will be leading the Auckland team, alongside his work with schools and clubs across the region.

Liam comes to us from Auckland Football where he was the Area Manager for Central West. Liam has a passion for community sport and is excited to connect with our clubs and athletes.