MacDonell returning home as guest speaker at Glengarry Sports Hall of Fame ceremony
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MAXVILLE — This year’s induction ceremony and celebration for Glengarry Sports Hall of Fame is bringing home a speaker who left the area over 30 years ago.
Special Olympics Ontario president and CEO will be the guest speaker on Aug. 21 at the event, held at the Char-Lan Recreation Centre in Williamstown.
MacDonell was raised as one of six siblings on a dairy farm outside of North Lancaster, son to Allan and Anna MacDonell. He is a graduate of Glengarry District High School and played with the Jr. B Glens in Alexandria, in Glengarry Touch Football, and fastball in Alexandria.
He joined Special Olympics Ontario (SOO) in 1988 as a district developer, moving on to become its executive director in 1990. He was appointed to his current position in 1997. SOO organizes and conducts competitions across a variety of sports aimed at those athletes with an intellectual disability.
MacDonell is quoted in the material released by the sports hall as saying a part of SOO’s success, and that of Special Olympics as a whole, is that it treats its participants as athletes, just like those playing those sports in other organizations. That means the sports, while modified to suit athletes’ abilities, still contain risk and require effort and training to achieve success.
In the 22 years MacDonell has led SOO, it has grown to include over 12,000 registered volunteers, 26,000 registered athletes, and tripled its fundraising to reach $9 million a year.
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This year’s class of inductees includes Tina Cairncross, Cathy MacLean, and Kent MacDonell. Pilot officer Campbell “Geeses” MacGillivray and Hugh Michael MacDonald are being inducted into the hall posthumously.
For tickets and more information, please visit www.glengarrysports.com.
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