Doing something Special
Special Olympics volunteers Dick and Linda Heraty have dedicated their lives to the cause
Feature
Rob MurphyTHERE are volunteers and then there are those who quite simply dedicate their lives to a cause.
Dick and Linda Heraty, who live in Cloonkeen outside Castlebar, fall into the latter category when it comes to being the driving force behind Special Olympics events in Mayo and, without any fuss or fanfare, the well-known couple have became two of the most important people in the network in the region.
This Friday, April 27, the national Special Olympics collection day takes place across the country and Dick and Linda will be helping to co-ordinate fund-raising projects in Ballinrobe and Castlebar.
These are just two of the ten locations in Mayo, and over 200 towns across the country, where events will take place.
Linda has worked for Western Care at the Crann Mór centre in Ballinrobe since 1992; she’s originally from the Philippines and met Dick, who is a psychiatric nurse in Castlebar, while at nursing school in London in the early 80s.
They have both coached and volunteered at various Special Olympic events since the 2003 games and Linda travelled to Athens last year as a coach with the Irish women’s Bocce team.
“I have been to three Games,” Linda told The Mayo News. “I coached the ten-pin bowling team in 2003, volunteered in Shanghai in 2007, and last year was a coach at the Athens Games. That really was some experience. We had a girl from each region, one from Antrim, Kildare, Cork, Limerick and, of course, Mary McDermott from Aghamore.”
The process of going to the World Games begins three years in advance, starting at the area championships before progressing to regional competitions. The national finals take place twelve months before the Olympics themselves.
The Irish team is formed a year in advance and, as bocce coach, Linda and her colleagues leave nothing to chance in terms of preparation.
“In an Olympic Games year, we would train once a month for eight months and that gives the athletes time for bonding, getting used to staying in hotels, the travel. They get to know each other and we really get to know them as well.”
The Special Olympics dream has roots in every community and begins in small towns and parishes across the country. For nine months every year Linda coaches bocce in the evenings, outdoor on the full size court in Ballinrobe or indoor in Roundfort, and she highlights the importance of Cairde Crann Mór’s fund-raising efforts in making this happen.
Her husband Dick, meanwhile, is in charge of the Castlebar Strikers Special Olympics bowling team who train every Tuesday.
He’s proud of the fact that they have formed and cemented a legacy as an independent evening club that provides bowling training for between 30 and 40 competitors from September to June each year.
“Cora Mulroy and the excellent staff in the Castlebar bowling centre have been a huge help,” he explained.
“They treat our team so well and we’re hugely grateful for the brilliant work they do. Each season, over time, all the competitors really build up their confidence and come out of themselves in terms of personality because of sports like this.
“I had five bowlers in Limerick in 2010 at the National Games and I really was struck by how a smaller group allowed one or two of the shyer members of the team to talk more. It can play such a key role in helping them in that way.”
Remarkably, the husband and wife team’s involvement with Special Olympics isn’t limited to the sports programme. The duo also act as mentors on the Athlete Leadership Programme, which offers athletes the opportunity to develop non-sports skills, to become socially and personally more confident, have a voice, contribute and participate as leaders and ambassadors within Special Olympics and in their own community.
THE profile of the Special Olympics is quite high in this country and the legacy of the 2003 Games which were held here in Ireland is still strong, according to the Heratys.
“I think it has moved forward considerably in the last eight or nine years,” said Dick.
“The thing I notice most is the recognition our top athletes now get. When Boots opened in Castlebar, our own Olympic gold medal-winning athletes, Deirdre Garvin and Paul Kavanagh performed the official opening, which was tremendous. Along with our other gold medal winners, Mary McDermott and Deirdre Gannon, they get great recognition for their achievements.”
Dick Heraty also mentions top athletes from the county such as Cora Staunton and Ray Moylette who have shown their support in recent months, while the Athens homecoming event last year also stands out as Alan Dillon and the Taoiseach were among the guests of honour.
Linda, meanwhile, has persuaded Mayo footballer, Donal Vaughan, to get involved in the collection day in Ballinrobe and one of the collection points will be outside the Vaughan’s shoe shop on Main Street.
Now the challenge is raising finances for another year because the Special Olympic Games are about so much more than just providing a platform for talented athletes to achieve their goals. They’re also about inclusiveness and participation.
“We always have a mix between those athletes training to compete at regional Games and those who are just playing for an evening activity which is fun,” said Linda.
“We play bocce in the evenings outside of the centre hours and it has proven very popular.”
Almost as popular as volunteers like Dick and Linda, without whom it wouldn’t be possible to organise events like bocce, bowling and table tennis for Mayo’s Special Olympics athletes.
Speaking about the couple’s ethos of volunteerism, Lydia Rogers, Special Olympics Connaught regional fund-raising coordinator said: “Dick and Linda have volunteered thousands upon thousands of hours of their time to support local athletes’ development.
“They are two of the most good-natured people and Special Olympics is indebted to them and all our local volunteers for their commitment to the athletes, without which the organisation would be unable to develop the sports programme”.
IF you’d like to play your part on Special Olympics collection day on Friday, you can volunteer your time for one hour or two at any of the collection day locations in Mayo.
Just sign up online at www.specialolympics.ie/collectionday or call Lydia 085-8031445 to be put in touch with the local co-ordinator. There are collection points in Ballina, Ballinrobe, Ballyhaunis, Belmullet, Castlebar, Charlestown, Claremorris, Kiltimagh, Swinford and Westport.
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