Basketball starts January 13th --

The Bears Special Olympics team will start its Basketball season on Wednesday, January 13th (nobody is superstitious are they?). Please call Rick Mons (651-334-6825) by JANUARY 10th if you wish to participate.

We’ll have half-court teams and new players will have their option of either playing on a team or competing in Individual Skills. Depending upon the number of players who participate, I think we’ll have at least three and possibly four half-court teams. Participation fees will be $15.00 per athlete. If you have difficulty in paying this fee, please talk to Rick Mons who will arrange for a scholarship.

One change that we’re making is the site of practices. Due to scheduling conflicts, we will be practicing at Golfview Elementary School (see map and directions below). However, practices will continue to be held from 6PM to 7PM every Wednesday – See schedule below. Please plan on arriving 5-10 minutes before practice begins so that we can have the full benefit of the hour of court time. Practices will end promptly at 7:00 so please also arrange to have your rides at the school by then.

The Area competition is Saturday, March 20 and will be held at Hastings High School (same location as in past years). You must compete in the Area competition in order to compete in the State competition.

The State competition is tentatively scheduled for April 10^th and 11^th – however a location has not yet been announced. We’ll provide more details for both Area and State competitions later on.

2010 BASKETBALL PRACTICE & COMPETITION SCHEDULE
January 13		March 3
January 20		March 17
January 27		AREA MEET SATURDAY 3/20
February 3		March 24
February 10		NO PRACTICE MARCH 31
February 17		April 7
February 24		STATE MEET APRIL 10 & 11 PLACE TBD

Practices: Golfview Elementary School • 2449 Orchard Lane • White Bear Lake

Map & Directions:

From I-694: Exit to White Bear Avenue. Go North to Orchard Lane. Turn East on Orchard to School.

From Hwy 61 or I-35E: Turn East (or if I-35E, Exit) on County Road E. Follow County Road E(becomes Minn. Highway 244) to McKnight. South to Orchard. East to School.

Powers & Weller to National Games next July

Congratulations to Amy Weller and Dan Powers, who have been selected to be part of the Minnesota delegation to the next Special Olympics USA National Games. Amy was chosen for Minnesota's track and field team and Dan for the bowling team.

The event will be held in Lincoln, Nebraska, (on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus and surrounding area) from July 18-23, 2010. An expected 3,000 athletes from all over the country will compete in thirteen sports.

While other countries have offered national games in the past, this is only the second time that athletes from the United States have been invited to compete nationally. Ames, Iowa, was the site of the first games in 2006.

Minnesota will be sending close to 100 athletes in various sports to Lincoln -- each state is given a quota determining how many athletes may be selected for each sport. . Selections in some sports remain to be made and it's expected that the State staff will finalize team selection for all sports by the beginning of November.

Good luck, Amy and Dan, and to all of the athletes who will compete in the Special Olympics 2010 USA National Games. (You can find more information on the games and follow progress toward the July, 2010, event at http://www.2010specialolympics.org)

(submitted by Cathy & Carol Petterman)

Welcome to Faith Barnier, new member of the Bears

The Bears added a new teammate recently. Faith Barnier joined the team and is participating in the Bowling competition. She's not sure yet whether she'll play basketball but is planning on competing in the Track & Field competitions next Spring. Faith, her dad and her twin sisters helped out at the fundraiser last Saturday.

Faith is in 9th grade at Irondale High School. She has eight brothers and sisters -- six still at home in Arden Hills. Her mom and dad, Sue and Dave, plus those family members who were able to attend the Davanni's fundraiser are shown at right.

Hawaiian H2O

Lots of Bears (and family members) turned out for the annual White Bear Lions "Run Around the Lake" event. This is a fund-raiser since the Lions make a contribution to every group that hosts a water stop. We hosted the water/Gatorade stop at mile 2 (or mile 12 for the "twice-around-ers") and this year's theme was "Hawaiian H2O" The water stop had Hawaiian music playing, a backdrop featuring an ocean view (see photo above), tiki torches, leis, and more.

Thanks to everyone who helped out! Thanks especially to Karen Clapper for pulling this together and to the Clappers and Hallgrens for the decorating touches.

By the way, the runners vote for "Best Water Stop" -- and the winner gets an additional "bonus" contribution. We won't know if we won or not for a couple of weeks but there was a lot of very positive comments from runners who came by after their run. While most runners just go once around the lake, many who are in training for marathons -- especially the Twin Cities Marathon -- use this race as a "tune-up" and run twice around White Bear Lake.

Golf - Results from State

The golf state competition was held at Oak Marsh. Sean Sieleni was the sole representative from the Bears in the Individual Skills competition and placed second in his division.

Unified 9-hole participants were

• Noah & Don Lamusga (2nd place in their division);
• Alec & Rick Mons (2nd place in their division);
• Tricia & Joe Paul (4th place in their division)

Here's the morning competitors showing off their awards (from left to right: Teams Lamusga, Sieleni, Paul and Mons)

___________________

In the afternoon, Sean and John Sieleni and Doug Dufresne and Barb Mons teed off for the 3-hole Unified Partner event. Sean and John placed first in their division and Doug and Barb tied for fourth in the same division.

We should note that a heroic shot from the sand trap by Sean saved the day and secured Team Sieleni's first-place position!

The golf team also wants to thank Island Lake Golf Course for the use of their facilities for practices. We've been able to practice there for the past several years and they've been both kind and understanding as we've tested their patience with shots zooming to the left, right and (upon occasion) straight ahead.

Bocce - Results from State Competition

The Bears participated in singles matches at the SOMN Fall Games in Maple Grove on August 22nd. We finished with 4 first place, 3 second place and 2 fourth place awards. Well done, one and all!

The season wound up with a celebration picnic hosted by the B-Dale Club in Roseville. Not only did these folks donate space for us to practice, they volunteered to treat the team and supporters to a barbeque. Wow!! We are overwhelmed by their generosity. A big, big thanks to them and also to the Half Time Rec, which also donated practice space for our use.

And a huge thank you goes out, too, to the wonderful parents and group home staff who so willingly pitched in at bocce practices and competitions. You all were a tremendous help to the coaches and athletes. You helped make it a total team effort and a fun season, too. We cannot thank you all enough.

From the Bocce coaches,

Cathy Peterman, Carol Peterman, Joanne Heller

Sad news

As many may know, Jeff Proulx was on several of our Special Olympics teams in the past few years. I first met Jeff when he played on our golf teams and really enjoyed having him participate.

Last year, he had to scale back his involvement and this year was unable to participate.

Saturday, I received this e-mail from Stephanie Boe. (Jeff lived with Stephanie and her family in a foster home setting.)

I wanted you to know that Jeff Proulx passed away today, he had been

suffering with complications of Alzheimer's for about the past six

weeks. Recently he had been suffering with seizures which were non-

specific and thought to be caused by the alzheimer's. Jeff has been

in hospice for the past week and was kept very comfortable, his

family has been with him around the clock.

Although Stephanie thought an obituary with more details would be published today, I've not seen any more details. I'll add them to this announcement once more is known.

Edit: Jeff's obituary was just posted on the Pioneer Press's site -- click here for the link and more details.