Special Olympics Alberta is dedicated to enriching the lives of
individuals with an intellectual disability through sport.

ATHLETES

Through the transformative power of sport, Special Olympics gives individuals with intellectual disabilities the strength, determination and confidence to take on any challenge in life. From the age of two, athletes participate in Special Olympics Alberta programs experiencing its benefits. Due to the impact that Special Olympics make on the lives of our athletes and their communities every $1 invested in a Special Olympics community sport program in Alberta, a minimum of $7 of social benefit is created.

900
Total Athletes
10
Young athletes
(21 years and younger)

2020-2021 Virtual Programming

“PEAK is a really helpful and awesome program, especially [during] this time of pandemic. It is great for me to stay active and motivated, their online activities are easy to follow, and the weekly BINGO card makes me keep going.”

– Kevin Petryshyn
SOA-Grande Prairie athlete

400
Athletes that joined
the PEAK Program
30
Athletes that joined
Hybrid Program
150
Athletes that joined
Home to Home Program
0
Athletes that joined
Young Athletes Program

ATHLETE DEVELOPMENT

Beyond programming opportunities, Special Olympics Alberta offers athlete leadership training opportunities, Unified Sports, health programs, and more.

Virtual Health Messenger Training:

Virtual Health Messenger Training creates opportunities for athletes to develop and demonstrate leadership skills and help create healthy communities. Our Health Messengers play a critical role in advocating for better health for people with intellectual disabilities.

The learning objectives for
this training are:

Health of Special Olympics Athletes

Develop an understanding of the health of Special Olympics athletes and the different components of Special Olympics health programs

Positive Role Model

Develop an understanding about how to be healthy and act as a positive role model for others

Understanding

Understand what healthy activities can help other athletes and their communities

Skills to Lead

Develop skills to help lead on your teams and in your communities to help others establish healthy lifestyles

Encourage Action

Consider how to best use your leadership skills to encourage action

Feeling Empowered

Leave feeling empowered to lead other athletes in health and fitness

Athlete Leadership

0
Athletes on the Athlete
Leadership Input Council
1
Virtual Health
Messengers Trained
20
Athletes Completed
Virtual Training
0
Mentors trained in
2020-2021

COACHES

From the age of two, athletes can participate in Special Olympics Alberta programs. Active Start and FUNdamentals is offered to Young Athletes, focusing on physical literacy and basic motor skills development. Athletes in Alberta can compete in 18 summer and winter sports, learn and grow in their sport, and advance to competitions at the local, regional, provincial, national, and international level.

“I often tell people that the Special Olympics is one of the happiest places on earth! It’s very inspiring to be a part of a team of athletes, coaches, and supporters who are focused on lifting each other up, and you’re guaranteed to have an absolute blast!”

– Makayla Watt
SOA-Edmonton coach

COACH
DEVELOPMENT

50
coaches trained
0
coaches enrolled in
virtual SO NCCP training

Volunteers

Volunteers are the main driver for the Special Olympics movement. Over the past year they have made tremendous efforts to connect with our athletes virtually, coach them online, provide virtual training sessions, and spend a tremendous amount of hours doing whatever it takes to better the lives of our athletes.

National Volunteer Week

Our National Volunteer Week landing page highlighted some of these incredible individuals through features, videos, and customizable thank you graphics.

IMPACT

The impact of our movement this year, while different, was as powerful as ever, as athletes across the province participated in virtual programming designed to keep them connected, active, healthy, and more. Athletes utilized weekly sessions and videos on our YouTube channel to help stay in shape and socialize with athletes across Alberta.

Digital
Presence

200
more people followed us on social media to learn about the movement.
500
more people subscribed to learn more about our organization on Mailchimp

Our digital footprint surged as people visited our YouTube to learn about the movement

156

Subscribers
(89 more than 2020)

9,437

Video Views
(6,672 more than 2020)

3,917

Unique Viewers
(2,872 more than 2020)

89,258

Impressions
(71,458 more than 2020)

Digital
Presence

100
Over 170 people attended our live virtual awards ceremony and has since been viewed over 500 times on YouTube
10
Our movement was featured 94 times on media outlets 20 more times than 2020

Financials

Total Revenues

 Amount ($)Percentage
National Sponsors 555,33936%
General Donations 98,3276%
Government Funding  
a) Government of Canada 533,91135%
b) Government of Alberta 101,6387%
Law Enforcement Torch Run97,4796%
Alberta Gaming, Liquor & Cannabis Commission 38,4313%
Foundations 26,9952%
Motionball 53,1603%
Other Revenue 30,0352%
Total 1,535,315 

Total Expenses

 Amount ($)Percentage
Sport Program and Events 160,44513%
Unified Sport Programs 128,17011%
Provincial Games 29,9392%
Team Alberta 4380%
Affiliate Services 283,89523%
Communications 77,1926%
Fund Development 174,30914%
Fund Development – Affiliate Sharing 160,67713%
Law Enforcement Torch Run 99,0948%
Alberta Gaming, Liquor & Cannabis Commission 1380%
Administration102,9098%
Total 1,748,034 

PEAK PROGRAM

The PEAK (Provincial Exercise and Activity Knockout) Program is a virtual program that ran three times over the past year in eight week intervals. Each week, athletes were challenged to hit their selected fitness goals, attend three virtual sessions for your body, your mind, and your health, complete their BINGO card, participate in bonus events, and a variety of fun activities.

The program also ran in a non-digital format called the PEAK Paper Program for athletes without access to the internet.

“The PEAK Program is a fun program as you can participate as little or as much as you want – the real winner is you as you get fit and stay healthy. Come join me and other athletes as we climb our mountains together through fun and fitness.”

– Leonka Kaluha
SOA-Calgary athlete

Completed 3 trips to the PEAK

Over 600,000 total minutes of activity tracked by climbers

5,249

Total Posts in the PEAK FB Group

57,622

Total Post Comments

60,260

Total Post Reactions

123,131

Total Post Engagements

400
Number of athletes
0
sessions hosted
0
PEAK Performers shared their journey on YouTube

LETR

Things looked a little different for our Alberta Law Enforcement Torch Run (LETR) over the last year. Instead of the traditional events, members of the LETR had to pivot to continue to raise funds and awareness for Special Olympics athletes.

Virtual Summer Series

They introduced the Virtual Summer Series, an annual series-style event consisting of three legs – biking, walking, and running. In its inaugural year, 117 VSS participants raised $31,824.

We also introduced our first-ever virtual plunge, #PlungeX that marked 10-years of #FreezinForAReason here in Alberta. We were able to spread our reach across the province and have plungers from new communities get involved.

Virtual Launch Party

We kicked things off with a wild Virtual Launch Party, hosted by Sean Burke, and 213 brrrave individuals took the plunge to raise over $116,000 for Special Olympics Alberta. It was amazing to see the creativity of the 62 plungers who submitted videos for our #PlungeX Virtual Video page.

“What can I say except it has been one of the best things to happen to me during my career in law enforcement. Come out to an event, [and] meet the athletes and officers who are a part of these two great organizations. I guarantee that you will go away from that event with a smile on your face and some awesome new friends.”

– Matt Burton
Chair of the Southwest Region

Funds raised

$ 0

4,300 views

on our Facebook Polar Plunge Opening Ceremony with over 15,000 impressions

3,600 viewers

joined us to kick off off our first-ever VSS on Facebook

13 VSS participants

 were highlighted in our Feature Friday series that was viewed 4,300 times across our platforms

PARTNERS

On behalf of all of our athletes across the province who are set to return to in-person programming this fall, we would like to thank our partners and donors who make it all possible.

Special Olympics Alberta-Calgary Young Athlete

Benjamin Millington

This year, Special Olympics Alberta-Calgary Young Athlete, Benjamin Millington was selected as the feature athlete for the annual Sobeys Kickstand Campaign. His image was featured in stores across the province, and with the huge success of the fundraiser locally, he was selected as the cover model for the Sobeys annual report!

THANK YOU TO THE GENEROUS DONORS WHO ALLOW
US TO MOVE OUR MOVEMENT FORWARD!