OLDS — The Olds Association for Community Living (OACL) has won a video contest and the $1,000 prize is going to the charity of their choice: Olds and District Special Olympics (ODSO).
The contest was organized by Voices of Albertans with Disabilities (VAD).
On its Facebook page, VAD said due to the pandemic lockdown, it had to cancel the normal in-person events and meetings it usually holds to celebrate National AccessAbility Week (NAAW) which ran May 31 - June 6 this year.
Instead, they held the video contest with the same goal: to raise support, awareness and positivity in the disability community.
OACL got wind of the contest about a month ago and entered, compiling a video entitled Stronger Together.
It features slides of some of the activities staff and clients undertook during the lockdown.
The video can be viewed by visiting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq6kHNJ8Lbc
OACL residential manager Sharon Dietrich is thrilled that they won. She got word of the win on June 1.
“(I’m) really, really proud of our staff,” Dietrich said during an interview.
“(I’m) really honoured that there was enough people who watched our video and won, because that’s how we won, was by the number of votes.”
She figures about 25 staff and 20 individuals (clients) participated in it.
Dietrich said it was an easy decision to choose ODSO as their charity of choice to receive the $1,000 prize.
“We picked that charity because of how many of our individuals are involved with Special Olympics,” she said.
“I would say probably 90 per cent of our individuals do some kind of sport through Special Olympics.”
She said another factor was that, due to the pandemic, ODSO has not been able to undertake some of the fundraisers they’d normally do.
ODSO chair Karen Mengersen says she was "overjoyed” when asked if they could be the OACL’s charity of choice.
“I graciously said ‘yes,’of course," said Mengersen.
She went online and watched the video and was thrilled that they won.
“I thought that they have done a superb job of keeping their clients and athletes busy doing things,” she said.
She said the money will go toward reducing costs for Special O athletes when they attend competitions.
