Kalena Soehn, 19, of Red Deer, was a Trampoline gold medalist at the Canada Winter Games in Red Deer this past February and gave an inspirational message to nearly 300 people at the 13th Annual Celebrity Breakfast hosted by Special Olympics Red Deer at the Harvest Centre Wednesday morning.

By Sheldon Spackman

annual fundraiser

Local trampoline star inspires at Special Olympics breakfast

Jun 19, 2019 | 12:19 PM

‘Discovering where sport can take you’ was the main message brought to nearly 300 people at the 13th Annual Celebrity Breakfast hosted by Special Olympics Red Deer Wednesday morning.

Held at the Harvest Centre in Westerner Park, Kalena Soehn, a highly decorated Red Deer trampoline athlete who recently won gold in Trampoline and silver in the Team event at the Canada Winter Games in February, was the guest speaker.

Soehn, 19, says highlighting the journey and the fun that goes with it was also part of her message, noting her most recent experience at the Canada Winter Games.

“Definitely how fun it was and just being here in the hometown surrounded with everybody,” says Soehn. “Having everybody there supporting me, it will push me to go further and I’ll always remember that.”

Soehn hopes her message Wednesday morning was inspirational to the local athletes in attendance.

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“That’s my goal,” admits Soehn. “I was so honoured to be invited to this, I’ve never done anything like this. So to be chosen and to know that I’m at a stage where I can use my platform to do something like this is amazing.”

With national championships coming up in July and a birth on the Senior National Team for World Championships on the line, Soehn says taking part in competitive sports has helped shape her as a person.

“I’ve definitely learned to be a better person,” she explains. “I’ve learned time management skills and a healthy lifestyle – number one for sure. There’s always going to be sacrifices that you have to make but you don’t always have to make sacrifices, you can work to do things together, you can compromise and you’re not going to be young forever, so do it while you can!”

Jerry Tennant with Special Olympics Red Deer says the support they receive each year is always very humbling, noting they will likely net about $10,000 with this year’s event.

“It’s probably one of our larger fundraisers and our primary one in terms of community involvement,” says Tennant. “We also have the Law Enforcement Torch Run agencies that raise funds for us and we get a casino once in a while. We also have some sponsors that give us yearly donations, some service clubs, things like that.”

Special Olympics Red Deer offers opportunities in 5 & 10 pin bowling, swimming, athletics (track & field), rhythmic gymnastics, indoor and outdoor soccer, softball, floor hockey, curling, bocce ball, power lifting and golf, all while serving over 300 local athletes with intellectual disabilities.

Tennant says money raised from this year’s event will go towards supporting those opportunities for athletes.

“Our programs are open to anyone with an intellectual disability,” he explains. “It could be just somebody in a special education class, autism, Down syndrome, someone with a brain injury. We’ll take anyone from ages 10 and up and we have senior citizens in our programs.”

Two Red Deer athletes have been selected to Team Alberta to represent the province at the National Games in Thunder Bay, Ontario next year.