On February 9, Special Olympics Rhode Island held an induction ceremony and dinner to honor its first class of inductees to the 2012 Inaugural Hall of Fame. Special Olympics Rhode Island provides sports training and athletic competition for 2,700 Rhode Islanders with intellectual disabilities.
“Tonight’s charter class should feel very proud for all they have done and continue to do for the Special Olympics, and I look forward to this Hall of Fame continuing to grow with outstanding inductees in the years ahead,” said Governor Chafee at the event.
The Governor spoke about how traditionally, for most sports halls of fame, the members of the first class of honorees – the “charter class” – are giants of the sport. He described how Baseball’s charter class, for example, included Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson.
As the Governor stated, “it’s not just athletes who are members of charter classes – just as, tonight, athletes such as Henry Moretti from Cranston and Maggie Sebastian from Wakefield are not the only ones being inducted.
Football’s charter class wasn’t only players – it was also coaches, just as tonight the Special Olympics will be honoring Coach Lisa McKay.
And the NHL Hall of Fame has a category for ‘builders’ – those who have contributed to the development of the game of hockey and who have built it into what it is today.
That is how I think of a number of the inductees tonight, such as the Giguere and Turgeon families, Bill and Katie Almon, Dunkin’ Donuts, Saul Fern, and Michael Goldberg. These are the ‘builders’ who have helped to make the Special Olympics of Rhode Island such a successful and meaningful event for the people of our state.”
