Red Deer curler Brittany Tran was the guest speaker for the 15th Special Olympics Red Deer Celebrity Breakfast held at the Harvest Centre at Westerner Park Thursday morning. (rdnewsNOW/Sheldon Spackman)

By Sheldon Spackman

Guest Speaker: Brittany Tran

Thousands raised for Special Olympics Red Deer during 15th Celebrity Breakfast

Jun 15, 2023 | 5:27 PM

Over 225 people gathered at the Harvest Centre at Westerner Park Thursday morning to show their support of Special Olympics athletes in our community.

The 15^th Special Olympics Celebrity Breakfast featured guest speaker Brittany Tran, a curler from Red Deer who now plays as third for Team Skrlik, which won the 2023 Alberta Women’s Provincials before competing at the Scott Tournament of Hearts in February.

Tran says she was excited to share her journey with the audience and bring a message of equity, inclusion and diversity in sports.

“When I was competing when I was younger, I never saw anybody that looked like me on TV,” explains Tran. “Now we have through the Grand Slam, the Japanese are playing in it, so we’re seeing a lot of, like Asian teams come up through the ranks, but we’re still kind of missing diversity in other areas, so it is nice to be able to see that. I just hope that impact is being made when people are watching me on TV.”

Brittany Tran. (rdnewsNOW/Sheldon Spackman)

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Mental health is another area of focus for Tran.

“One of my old teammates passed away. She took her life, so mental health has become super important to me since then,” she explains. “I mean, it was important before, but that just kind of reinforced it and how we just need to support each other and support ourselves mentally, just as we do physically.”

Trans says Special Olympics is doing great work for local athletes and beyond.

“I really support and want to advocate for them where I can,” says Tran. “And I think it’s helping athletes with disabilities be able to have something that I’m passionate about and they can be passionate about as well and be able to participate, which I think is so important.”

Elliott Moskowi, 31, a highly decorated Special Olympian from Red Deer, began his Olympic journey as a swimmer and is now lending his talents to the sport of curling.

“I joined several swim clubs, from Catalina to the Marlins, and then I heard from a friend that he joined Special Olympics and it was from him that I heard about it, so I joined the swim program and I realized that it came so natural,” Moskowi recalls. “So by the time we got to 2010, I started swimming in my first major competition and they realized with the achievements, I was able to go even further. So as the years went on, I trained vigorously, and with great determination, until I finally reached the height of my glory in 2015 when I qualified for Worlds in Los Angeles, California.”

Elliott Moskowi. (rdnewsNOW/Sheldon Spackman)

Moskowi acknowledges the life changing opportunities that have come his way since joining the Special Olympics program in Red Deer.

“I was able to go to places that I could only imagine being in and I have made memories that I treasure very fondly to this day,” he continues. “And my family is proud of me and I’d be nothing without them and without their support to get through all the trials and the difficulties and I am most grateful for them, as well as Special Olympics for providing the opportunity for me to do all that I was able to accomplish for myself, and both for our province and our country.”

“Special Olympian athletes – we may be different, but deep down, we are diamonds in the rough.”

Jerry Tennant, Chairman, Special Olympics Red Deer, says Thursday’s event will raise between $8,000-$9,000.

“It’s one of our major fundraisers in terms of cash that we can use for all of our different expenses and purchasing equipment, always new uniforms, training coaches, paying for facilities,” he explains. “It’s not an inexpensive program but we get so much support from the community in terms of fundraising and donation of facilities and equipment and things like that, so it was a big success!”

(rdnewsNOW/Sheldon Spackman)

Although the number of Special Olympics athletes in Red Deer hasn’t fully recovered from pre-pandemic levels, currently a little shy of 300, Tennant says there are now 14 sports for athletes to choose from, including two new ones in basketball and pickleball.

“Our next programs will run from September to the end of next August and we do start our registrations for that online in July,” notes Tennant. “Then we have registration night in September for those that can’t do it online.”

“We are here, we are strong, we have a lot of people involved and we need community support to continue the programs for these amazing athletes,” adds Tennant. “We’ve lost a few sponsors and that’s something that will happen any time, but the number that continue to come out to not only this event, but other events like the Law Enforcement Torch Run, Free our Finest at Walmart, the Polar Plunge fundraising events, they help us out as well, so tremendous community support.”