Brown recognized for contributions to curling, Special O

Darren Brown was recognized on Thursday as the region's representative for the Canadian Curling Association's volunteer of the year award.

Specifically, Brown was recognized for his work in building up the Special Olympics curling program that he started five years ago. Prior to starting the program, Brown was president of the Olds Curling Club for 12 years, and oversaw renovations that were made to the facility.

“This is a true honour for me to be nominated by my peers,” Brown said in accepting the recognition, adding that he thoroughly enjoys working as a volunteer with the Special Olympics.

In an interview following the presentation, Brown said his interest in Special Olympics began as a desire to get more involved in the community.

“Basically I was looking for something else to do in the community; I had been involved with the curling (club) volunteering, so I decided one day to look up Special Olympics and got a chance to help out with the summertime softball program and have stayed ever since,” he said, noting that in addition to softball and curling, he also coaches the floor hockey program.

“It's been exciting to watch all the programs expand,” he said, adding the Special Olympics affiliate in Olds has been working diligently with other affiliates throughout Central Alberta to organize competitions in the three sports.

“We're trying to set up one-day competitions so we can give our athletes something else to look forward to other than just playing games amongst ourselves (in Olds),” he said.

Since Brown took over the softball program, the level of participation has more than tripled to almost 50 athletes from 15. The floor hockey program has increased to nearly 30 participants from 14 when Brown got involved. Brown built the curling program from scratch, starting with four athletes. This year there were nine curlers and the hope is to have enough curlers for three teams next year.

“I was heavily promoting trying to get the junior curling programs going here (when he was president of the OCC) and through that it just seemed like a natural fit to get the Special Olympics program started,” he said.

As part of his efforts with the curling program, Brown organized a bonspiel in December that drew 58 Special Olympics rinks from around Central Alberta to Olds.

“Darren is a very charismatic person with my athletes and he relates to them so well. (He) gives them a sense of self-worth and also of responsibility that we're here to have fun together but we're here to work as a team,” said Karen Mengersen, chairman of Special Olympics in Olds. “(He is) definitely a good asset to the program and it helps to make my athletes good citizens in the community.”