Melfort Special Olympics is in a comfortable financial position to support their athletes in events such as the Melfort Multi-K (Melfort Special Olympics/Facebook).

By Aaron Schulze

Melfort Special Olympics

Melfort Special Olympics financially good to support its athletes

Sep 25, 2019 | 10:00 AM

With a busy 2020 ahead of them, Melfort Special Olympics is feeling comfortable in terms of funding.

The group held both its annual general meeting and regular board meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 24, where Melfort Special Olympics’ final state and upcoming training schedule was unveiled.

As of June 30, 2019, Melfort Special Olympics has nearly $7,700 in total equity, which is up by $5,000 from the previous year. The increase is in part to the group nearly doubling its total revenue from nearly $13,000 to just under $26,000.

A $4,900 50/50 raffle, near $3,000 increase in grants, and near $2,000 increase in donations were up from 2018.

Carl Kruger, a coach with Melfort Special Olympics, said they’re sitting very good in terms of money compared to their $6,000 plus loss in net income the year prior.

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“We’ve got most of it all covered,” Kruger told northeastNOW. “We’ve got a couple of private donations to sponsor two athletes, a good 50/50 raffle, and our bottle drive worked really good.”

What’s not on the financial statement is Melfort Special Olympics’ latest bottle drive in late August, which generated triple its revenue from $1,000 in 2018 to $3,000.

Melfort Special Olympics and their athletes will need every penny as their curling team will represent Team Saskatchewan in the 2020 national winter games after previously winning provincials in Regina.

Kruger is an assistant coach for the curling team and is expected to be travelling with curlers Garnet Gerski, Scot Earl, Rodney Mitchell, Kyle Hartt, Team Skip Daniel Fiedelleck, and Head Coach Brian Kjelshus. The cost to send an athlete to attend the games in Thunder Bay, Ont. is $1,350.

“Our training has been going on since they were selected as a team,” Kruger said. “We’re supposed to meet with them twice a week and have one cross training session. There’s no ice in the curling rink, so we’ve been doing [bowling, bocce ball, and a few other things]. Once the curling rink gets going, we’ll be curling twice a week.”

The Melfort Special Olympics curling team also needs to attend a mandatory Team Saskatchewan training camp in Regina from Sept. 27 to 29 and a leadership program in Humboldt the week after. They’ll also need to participate in two bonspiels before the winter games begin in February.

Kruger said Melfort Special Olympics will host a bonspiel in early November and attend another in Regina in January.

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aaron.schulze@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @SchulzePANow