Third Annual ALPs Conference
Jan11Written by:
1/11/2011 10:55 AM 
Well done to all the athletes and mentors who braved the bad weather to attend 2010's 3rd Annual ALPs Conference for the Eastern Region which took place on 27th & 28th November. We had almost 60 ALPs athletes and mentors who attended the two day event which was held in the Law Library, Distillery Building, Church St, Dublin 1. The ALPs athletes and mentors did a lot of hard work over the weekend and see below some of the activities they got up to!
Day 1
Workshop 1:
Pedometer – All the athletes got a new pedometer and learned how to use them. Each athlete was given a logbook with targets to reach throughout the year (Mount Everest being one!). We had great fun using them and we’ll be checking up on everyone’s totals in 2011 so keep walking!
Workshop 2: Eastern Region Info and Facts
Susan Murray gave an update on the ALPs Athlete Sub Committee. She explained how the sub committee were finding it hard to organise visits with clubs in their area in order to talk about ALPs. The sub committee have asked for the support of all clubs in the region to support their project. A suggestion was for the ALPs visits to be done at a clubs social outing rather than a training night as training nights are so busy.
Workshop 3: Physical Exercise
Special Guest: Rebecca McAdam and Robbie Daly from SO Unlimited were our special guests. They gave everyone a workshop on how to do a good interview and how to project your points and opinions clearly.
Finally, we had Alec Ward from the NPAS (National Performing Arts School) who did a 2 hour dance lesson with techniques from Glee, Black Eyed Pea’s to Shakira.
Day 2
Workshop 4 & 5: Healthy Eating & Healthy living in your own life
Unfortunately, we had to postpone the first two workshops due to the bad weather but we soldiered on and had our Easter Region Quiz which was won by the SPIDERMEN!
Sunday afternoon was again devoted to the ALPs awards ceremony for 2010 (see pictures below). Liz Callery – Regional Director opened the event by thanking all the athletes and mentors for their hard work. In total we had 14 athletes who received bronze and silver awards on the night from special guests; Matt English – Special Olympics Ireland Chief Executive Officer, Frances Kavanagh – Special Olympics Ireland Director of Sport, Dervila O’Mahony - Special Olympics Ireland Board of Directors and Maurice Redmond - Eastern Region Chairperson. Check out below all the athletes who received awards!
Bronze Award
Geoffrey Curley - Sports Club 15 Special Olympics Club (Hot Fuzz ALPs Group)
Jack Conneely - Sports Club 15 Special Olympics Club Hot (Hot Fuzz ALPs Group)
William Holmes - Sports Club 15 Special Olympics Club Hot (Hot Fuzz ALPs Group)
Charles Spencer – Stillorgan/Mt Merrion Special Olympics Club
Stephen Fagan – United Warriors Special Olympics Club (IN ABSENTIA)
Philomena O’Dowd – Dundrum Special Olympics Club (Dundrum ARCH Club)
Silver Award
Jerome Moran – Sports Club 15 Special Olympics Club (Hot Fuzz ALPs Group)
Neil McCrone - Sports Club 15 Special Olympics Club (Hot Fuzz ALPs Group)
Paul Mullen - Sports Club 15 Special Olympics Club (Hot Fuzz ALPs Group)
Aisling O’Mahony - Sports Club 15 Special Olympics Club (Hot Fuzz ALPs Group)
Laura Byrne - Sports Club 15 Special Olympics Club (Hot Fuzz ALPs Group)
John Feighery - Sports Club 15 Special Olympics Club (Hot Fuzz ALPs Group)
Chloe MacMullan - Sports Club 15 Special Olympics Club (Hot Fuzz ALPs Group)
Liam O’Malley - Sports Club 15 Special Olympics Club (Hot Fuzz ALPs Group)