Published in the July 22 – Aug. 4, 2015 issue of Morgan Hill Life
Robert Airoldi
Photo by Marty Cheek
You light up our life, Special Olympics! Morgan Hill Life salutes the law enforcement personnel and athletes who made a special stop at our town’s Community and Cultural Center carrying the Flame of Hope from Athens to the opening ceremonies of the Special Olympics competition which starts this month in the City of Angels. Annually more than 85,000 officers from 35 nations, 12 Canadian provinces and 50 American states do the torch run to raise millions of dollars for local Special Olympics programs.
Morgan Hill Mayor Steve Tate and Police Chief David Swing welcomed the runners in a special ceremony at the center’s Monterey Road entrance. The law officers serve as the “guardians of the flame” who protect the runners heading south through California until the torch reaches the Los Angeles Coliseum July 25 for the games which close Aug. 2.
Athlete Maria Daniela Brandt, 26, from Pennsylvania is participating in running four or five miles a day for 12 days for a total of 134 miles to raise awareness of the Special Olympics throughout the nation.
“I don’t care how fast I go, I just like to run,” she said. “If you do Special Olympics and find a sport you like to do, I think you should do it as much as you can. This is an honor I will never forget.”
About 7,000 Special Olympics athletes from 177 nations will participate in the games. We wish them all the best.
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We love our Youth Action Council members in Morgan Hill because they represent the leadership building among our town’s young people. So that’s why we want to proudly spotlight Nadia Ahmed, 17, who received the President’s Volunteer Service Award this month.
The award recognizes Americans of all ages who have volunteered significant amounts of their time to serve their community.
Nadia Ahmed
Ahmed recently graduated from Oakwood High School. During her time at the Morgan Hill private school, she gave more than 500 hours of her time in clubs such as the Rotary’s Interact group and Healing Humanity. She has also been involved with YAC since 2011, helping with events such as the Zumbathon and the Senior Citizen Ball.
“YAC has helped me develop self-confidence, personal growth and character building,” she said. “I have become more organized and disciplined and I have developed good communication skills. The most important thing I have learned is leadership skills.”
We predict great things for Nadia’s future as she goes to the University of Arizona this fall.
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Morgan Hill is a relatively safe city in comparison to many communities in California, so let’s celebrate our town’s first responders in the annual National Night Out event. It’ll be held 5 to 8 p.m. Aug. 4 in downtown Morgan Hill.
Photo by Robert Airoldi
Families will love the ice cream social, food trucks, face painting, live music, games, prizes and other activities tailored for kids. They’ll also get to meet Sony, the Morgan Hill Police Department’s K9 police dog. National Night Out is a crime and drug prevention event that is sponsored by the National Association of Town Watch and co-sponsored locally by the MHPD.
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The Wildlife Education and Rehabilitation Center, located in Morgan Hill, brought two owls and a falcon to the Johnson Lumber Ace Hardware store Saturday, July 11 to highlight a few of the animals that cannot be released into the wild and serve as ambassadors. In its efforts to rehabilitate and return native wildlife to the wild, WERC has worked with sick, injured and orphaned animals such as bobcats, badgers, owls, hawks, reptiles and eagles. It’s great to see the volunteers interacting with the public. Keep up the good work, WERC, caring for those critters.
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Alyssa Greymont, who recently signed on to swim for San Jose State University after completing two years at Gavilan College, will be swimming at the World Deaf Championships in San Antonio, Texas, next month. Greymont was diagnosed with severe hearing loss at the age of 6. By 12, she was nearly deaf. She took up swimming in part because non-verbal communication is used heavily. She has been swimming since the age of 6 for Pacific Swimming, The Morgan Hill Makos and her coach has worked with her for the past six years to become the swimmer she is one of the top distance swimmers in Pacific Swimming. There is now a GoFundMe page at www.gofundme.com/x3pzfc to help raise the needed funds to send her to Texas. Good luck, Alyssa.
