Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:01 Good morning, Fort McMurry, wood, Buffalo, and the rest of the world. You've tuned into the Mac CD morning show. I am your host Elliot Pierre, and we're going to start the show off the same way. We just start every show off with a moment of gratitude. I know you could be doing a million of other things with your time. So the fact that you're spending it with us truly does mean the world to me on that note, Tanner hit him with the intro.
Speaker 1 00:00:23 Oh, she caught me loves you're listening to the next any morning show.
Speaker 0 00:00:32 All right. Now we got a good one today. Cause we have my favorite type of guests, the individual that I know nothing about. So they're my favorite because I like to meet people. I like to hear their stories. Um, as per usual, you guys are pretty used to it. I don't introduce the guests cause they can do a better job at that than myself. So on that note, sir, can you please tell people who you are and what you're about?
Speaker 2 00:00:52 Yeah. I'm Johnny Byrne, I'm CEO at special Olympics, uh, Alberta. And that's what brings me to your room today.
Speaker 0 00:00:59 Nice. Awesome. So yeah, uh, we haven't met before, but I took a quick little video of you earlier today. Uh, you sat in a kids pool and had athletes dump ice water all over you it's minus 14 outside today. Yeah,
Speaker 2 00:01:13 I did. But I'd say it's a, it's part of my plunge tour. It's the, uh, a major fundraiser you have for special Olympics. It's the, uh, uh, polar plunge it's actually done across around the world by a different special Olympics programs. Uh, we get big support from law enforcement who was a big part of doing that for us. Uh, this year, obviously we do it a bit differently at the virtual plunge. So part of my thing was, Hey, I want to get out to as many of our communities as possible and make sure we're able to show them recognition and show them some love. And that's sort of what got me, uh, coming up to Fort Mac so I can have some of the amazing athletes here, dump water over me.
Speaker 0 00:01:47 That's awesome. Well, the, the athletes loved it today from like the older ones to the younger ones. They were all smiles.
Speaker 2 00:01:54 Yeah. Yeah. I got to say that was a highlight for me because it's, uh, um, the program here just started up again this fall and then sort of five weeks later, they're shutting down because of uh COVID. Uh, and, but they've kept with it and that's one of the, that was one of the driving forces to make sure I got here just to show the recognition for the awesome work that they've done. And it was very cool for me too. Cause I got to meet some new athletes. So that's, uh, that's the real reason why I've been in this movement for so long. It's, uh, the impact you see you make on those individual's lives and the families. And as you would have seen there today, it's not just an athlete showing up. You had a big mix, you had, uh, individuals with intellectual disabilities.
Speaker 2 00:02:33 Those that live independently. We had, uh, one of the athletes Dallas. So we just met today. She was very proud because she was, she was proud to talk about that. She no longer has a support worker with her. She gets to live independently and have some big for her. And that was like a, I was like, wow, that's awesome. And then I got to meet Dale who works at a local local Safeway and Sobeys and Safeway is a huge supporter of special Olympics, but that's obviously not why he's there, he's there because he's a great worker. He's very proud that he's been working full time throughout the pandemic. And then I met some of the younger athletes that are school aged and it's just really cool just seeing that whole range. Right. And, and you see the support and the people around them too. That's a really cool part about, uh, about meeting new people.
Speaker 0 00:03:09 Yeah, man. So how did you get involved with special Olympics?
Speaker 2 00:03:13 It was through, uh, I went to Memorial university in Newfoundland and I did, uh, adaptive physical education program there. And yeah, I volunteered as part of my program with was actually a program adjacent the special Olympics, but that's, it was special Olympics and all those kinds of things that as a, as an organization, everybody knows the names like, Oh, okay. That special Olympics. I know that, but you don't really know, but I was just like, okay, know what that is. Uh, and then through our co-op placement, I worked with special Olympics and then after I graduated school position came open and then 22 years later, her RN.
Speaker 0 00:03:46 Wow. So you've been working with special Olympics for 22 years. Holy moly man. That's crazy.
Speaker 2 00:03:51 Yeah. No, but I I've, it's, I've crossed, I've gone down many roads. So I actually started sort of the reverse to what many people do. I started at the national national office in Toronto, like right out of university. And it was there for a number of years. Then I was, um, executive director in Newfoundland where I'm originally from, I was executive director of special effects Newfoundland for six years and then moved out to Alberta. And I've been here for, I think over 11 right now. So yeah. Okay.
Speaker 0 00:04:18 Yeah. Wow. Okay. You just did something that most for McMurry individuals make Murray EITs make Marines. I don't know what, what we call each other, but people from Fort Mac, there's a lot of us or a lot of people I should say from Newfoundland here. Now you went from Newfoundland. You didn't make it. You went to Edmonton. So why did you leave Newfoundland to go to Edmonton?
Speaker 2 00:04:40 Uh, it wasn't cause obviously I was with an organization that I, I loved, but it was at a, at a time where my wife was just finishing university and there wasn't necessarily opportunities for her there. And then, uh, the, the program in Alberta sort of approached me and said, would you be interested in coming out here to work at some point? And then yeah, it was like, yeah. Okay. Makes sense. So it wasn't a drive that it's like, I got to get out of here. It was more of like, Hey, this is an interesting opportunity. Maybe something for our family and like everybody else at that time. Yeah. I'm going to come out for going to come out for two or three years and 11 years later, here we are.
Speaker 0 00:05:13 So what part of new flawed you from?
Speaker 2 00:05:16 Um, Hollywood. So just about a half hour outside of St. John's. Yeah,
Speaker 0 00:05:21 That's right. Nice. I love Newfoundland. It comes up a lot. I've been to Newfoundland a bunch of times in, uh, in my career. I used to be a recruiter. So you still like get people to come. Hey, there's a lot of here already transitioned come to Fort McMurray. So very cool. Okay. So you live in Edmonton now? Yes. You watch hockey.
Speaker 2 00:05:41 I do watch hockey. I'm not a hockey. I, I, I'm not the, I'm not the hockey fan, but I will watch hockey. Yeah. I don't, I know, believe me as soon as, as soon as I, as soon as I show up at Edmonton and realize like, Oh, the Edmonton Calgary thing, Israel. Yeah. I watch it in the garage with the boys.
Speaker 0 00:05:58 I'll watch it to watch it. I'll watch it,
Speaker 2 00:06:01 But I don't get caught in the middle of the Edmonton Calgary.
Speaker 0 00:06:04 So I was going to say, when you moved to Alberta, like, did you get sucked into that?
Speaker 2 00:06:07 Yeah, always, but I got to stay neutral. Duke is both, uh, both the Oilers and the flames are big supporters of special Olympics. So that's, that's what I'm, that's what I cheer for.
Speaker 0 00:06:16 Yeah. There you go. Now I gotta be honest with the special Olympics. I don't know much about it. Um, and it wasn't until last year, like you said, before they shut down, uh, the group reached out to me and said, Hey, can you come and help us, uh, do some marketing, shoot some videos for us. I do a lot of pro bono work for not-for-profits. So I went out and I got connected that way, but it was something that was off my radar prior to that. So I think there's a lot of individuals like myself who don't know much about the organization. You hear it, you hear the name, but you don't know what that means. So can you kinda enlighten us a little bit about what the organization does and what'd you guys kind of stand for?
Speaker 2 00:06:51 Yeah. And that's not surprised at all to hear that. Like, that's a pretty, that's a pretty common thing to hear because it is the name special effects in the brand. When you, when you track it against the brands in the world, it's one of them get some of the highest recognition people just boom. And I think the one good thing about that, people hear special Olympics and they are going to think that's a good thing, but then it's like, okay, well what is it? Cause also because Olympics, isn't the name? People also think, Oh, so the next question you get is, well, when are they? Cause it's like, okay, this is an event. When are they in a, as you would have, start to see here and wood Buffalo, as they're going, it's like, Oh wait, this is a community based program. Um, and yeah, we have some amazing events.
Speaker 2 00:07:29 Like we have some really, really cool things. We'll have major games like national games and provincial games, uh, that you'll have thousands of athletes that you'll have athletes that will go to a rural games. Like those kinds of things like we'll have that whole competitive stream. But our impact that we make is that the community level. So in, uh, Alberta, now we have 26 affiliates. Um, you can, some people will refer them as clubs or thing, but it's like, yeah, that's our affiliate base. And those are volunteer run programs. And they service over 3000 athletes in Alberta right now in over 160 communities. Wow. And that will be, we have 18 official sports that we'll offer, but then we'll have other sports that athlete will try. And we have young athletes programs, which was fundamental movement. And we also have an amazing, um, unified programs that we do in Alberta high schools.
Speaker 2 00:08:15 And we have, uh, uh, one of our Fort Memorial high schools is very supportive. One of our great unified leading programs here too, that is athletes with them without disabilities. I played together on the same team and that's unified sports. So yeah, it's, it is about, it's about inclusion and it's about empowerment. It's about health. Uh, and it's just really trying to provide people with an opportunity because I think whether you're a huge sport enthusiast or not people sort of understand, okay, sport is a good thing. It helps makes you healthier. A lot of people definitely at like my age, you're not going to sport to be like, Oh yeah, I'm this committed my professional career. You go to, it's like, I want to spend time with people that I like. Yeah, it'll be physically active. And that's really what you're providing special Olympics is that it gives people a network and a community.
Speaker 2 00:09:01 And as you'll see out there today with some veracity, it's like that community that gets created there is, is very cool. And it's, it's a very opening cause it's not just like, okay, we're just going to be this insular group. It's like, no, let's get out in the community. Let's be there and see what happens. So yeah. Yeah. So it's, we're the thing is that I think if I was to distill it down, it's that special Olympics. If you want to use the mission statement, it's, we're dedicated to enriching the lives of intellectual disabilities through sport. They're really wanting to break it down special Olympics. We're not an event, we're a movement and that's sort of what it comes down to. And that's, that's what we're trying to create. We want to be part of the community and have our athletes be part of the community and uninstall.
Speaker 0 00:09:37 That's awesome. Yeah, definitely though. The one event, the one event today was had a few people because of, COVID obviously a little bit different, but the first one that I went to and you nailed it all walks of life, the parents, the friends, the volunteers, the athletes, there's a lot of people that are involved in it. And that's great because you get, like you said, it, it becomes a movement. Very cool. So now out of all of the different, uh, sports, this is kind of like asking you, I know it's hard to answer, but which one of the sports do you, uh, kind of gravitate to more?
Speaker 2 00:10:09 Oh, for special Olympics. Yeah. You got to go, you want to do a winter sport or something. So if I would say winter, uh, I really enjoy floor hockey because of the, the team aspect, just, um, and it's uh, yeah, just the, just watching the interaction dynamics of our athletes, working together as a team and the leaders that develop and things within there. Um, summer sports I've really taken a liking to botchy lately. I don't know. It just really exploded for our athletes and it's really come out there and it's, it's one of those kind of things just to once again, see the development of our athletes, uh, and it's really accessible to all different levels. And I think that's a really cool thing as you'll, as you've noticed about special Olympics, and this is, you'll see this at the highest level. So if you go to a world games, um, the, the whole foundation of special Olympics is that athletes of all abilities have the same opportunity.
Speaker 2 00:11:03 So, and through processes, which is called divisioning. So let's just say, if you'll take the a hundred meter race, so you could have 120 athletes in a a hundred meter race. Um, but through divisioning, it's like you could have 12 different races, but it's like each race is considered its own championship, but you have athletes that are of that similar ability level that are competing, but it's not like division one division 12. It's like, Oh no, here's our true champion. It's like, no, this is all, this is all abilities that are all champions within their own ability and the cool things about us and our competitive stream is that, so let's just say, if we do that race at our provincial games and we're selecting our athletes that are going to go compete for team Alberta, the athlete that wins a gold medal in division 12, is that gold medals worth the same as the athlete and division one. And that's where you select teams. And we look at that, like that core foundation is always there. So that's why when you go to a world games, you go to a national game jewel, you'll still see that huge range of abilities and backgrounds and things like that, which is
Speaker 0 00:12:05 So just promoting positivity across the board. Yeah. That's awesome, man. Very cool
Speaker 2 00:12:10 Competitiveness to get better than this is still there. It's like, it's, it's huge, but it just, it's a it's awesome.
Speaker 0 00:12:15 I went bowling with those athletes to say it was competitive would be understatement. Yeah. Like they're, they're there to win. You're there to make friends and stuff, but we got, and that's, you don't want to think that
Speaker 2 00:12:28 Part of what you don't want it to be because that's sometimes one of the things that when you have people that will come in and we'll say, we'll do it like an integrated competition or event. Um, and it's that fine line between yeah. We want to have that competition, but you never want to be in that like pandering. It's like, Oh yeah. Let's just whatever. Let's just, let's go there for a competition. Like that's part of the treating with the quality. And that's something that our athletes pick up on very quick. It's like, yeah, you're just, you're not treating us like another athlete. And that's one of those things you should always strive for.
Speaker 0 00:12:58 Yeah. That's good. Cause I find like I have a young little boy Keegan he's six years old. And so he plays soccer and stuff. And the first time we went there kicking balls and they played a little scrimmage and they weren't keeping score, but daddy was keeping score. Yeah. And so at the end I was like, Hey Keegan, you won. And one of the other parents like, yeah, we don't, uh, we don't keep score. I'm like, Oh, okay. Sorry. My bad. And we got in the car. I was like, Hey Keegan, your team won. You got to keep score a little bit. There's nothing wrong with healthy competition.
Speaker 2 00:13:28 Well, no. And I think that's the big thing about it because it, part of the learning part too. And it's like, obviously that's not the first thing that's up. It's like, okay, you've got to get out there and win. But it's part of that is saying it's okay to compete and it's okay to be disappointed when you don't achieve what you want. And for some of our athletes, it's not a, um, it's not even a gold, silver, bronze. It's something that they've set for themselves. Like, okay, I want to do this. Right. Part of that is embracing me. Yeah, no. Yeah. They were disappointed. That's that's okay. That's part of this whole thing, but then it's like, okay, how does the team deal with that? How how's their whole athlete never deal with it that like, how do they gather on that? It's yeah. It's, it's a cool and really important part of the whole process for us. For sure.
Speaker 0 00:14:03 That's awesome, man. That's great to hear now you're at the part of the show called the Mac city minute. Don't know if you've heard about it, if you haven't. Well that's okay. But uh, Tanner has a few questions for you. Okay. I have no idea what he's going to ask you. Best of luck to you. Tanner hit him with the max 30 minutes.
Speaker 2 00:14:18 Wait, missed. This is a sport thing. So I also got to go, am I scored or am I judged? What's the, what's the credit? Is there criteria? Is it just
Speaker 3 00:14:26 It's uh, I like to call it the Mac city minute because in, in Fort McMurray, nobody ever does a minute in 60 seconds. Right. We do it on our own
Speaker 0 00:14:35 And success is how much you don't pause. So awkward pauses. That's uh, that's counts. Well,
Speaker 2 00:14:42 Right. I'm already inside my own head
Speaker 3 00:14:45 Question. Number one. What is the most special part for you of working with the special Olympics are athletes Question number two. What is your favorite thing you've seen in your visit to Fort McMurray?
Speaker 2 00:14:59 Uh, I went for a run, uh, over by the leisure center. So I went on the walking trails around there. Awesome.
Speaker 3 00:15:06 Question number two winter summer. What event do you prefer and why?
Speaker 2 00:15:11 Ooh, got to go for hockey for winter. Uh, just teamwork, really good skills. And I have, uh, an athlete Josh that works with me and he's a sniper. I just love watching him, uh, love watching him play
Speaker 3 00:15:24 Question number four. What does Fort McMurray have that you haven't noticed in the other places you've been
Speaker 2 00:15:31 Ooh. Now I'm going to get the pause. I only drove in here and went and got cold water dumped over my head. So pause could be with a hypothermia, but we're just still not still not sure. Um, honestly I love the, uh, although like other, some of the other cities have the Riverway going through, I just loved the, I loved the bridge waterway, uh, set up here. It's really cool.
Speaker 3 00:15:57 Your last question. What puts Alberta over the other provinces when it comes to the special Olympics?
Speaker 2 00:16:05 Ooh, sorry, athletes again, once again, an amazing CEO. Just that's the one thing. That's what the other CEOs across Canada, we say it's like, Johnny is just the best. That's what puts them off.
Speaker 3 00:16:17 And those have been your five questions.
Speaker 0 00:16:19 Love it. Love it. Yeah. I honestly, cause we, I was overhearing, I was being a little nosy. You talking to some of the other people at the thing today, um, they were dumping buckets of water on you, which the, there was a substantial amount of ice in all of those buckets. But you were saying prior to like, uh COVID you would be jumping into like rivers and stuff.
Speaker 2 00:16:40 Oh yeah, no we'll uh, I we've in pre pre COVID and like pre virtual plunge. We had five plunge sites in Alberta that like different communities would do. And obviously it doesn't work now because when you do that, you'll say you'll get a lot of people that come and do it and go through that. But yeah, no, it's a, a cut a hole through the ice jumped down. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:17:03 We want to tick, how many times do you think you've done this like that?
Speaker 2 00:17:08 Oh, so for, so I'm doing, I'm doing 10, 10 virtual plunges for this, these isn't hitting up a number of different, like our supporters and sponsors and then our communities. Uh, I will traditionally, I try to get to as many plunge sites as I can, but I would say the past number of years I would cause I would get anywhere between three and five in a year. So yeah, I gotta be over 50 right now, dear Lord. But you, you, you figure out your technique. It is the breathing. It is. Cause it is. It's like I find definitely jumping through the ice. It's the shock. So it's like, once you get that, it's like, okay, there's going to be a shock, but when you're ready for that and you can redo it. Yeah. It mean not cold, but the, uh, I have to say the, the Fort McMurry four buckets of ice with time spaced in between, that was, that was intense.
Speaker 0 00:17:59 Yeah. Those athletes didn't care that you were sitting in bad water. They're taking their sweet time.
Speaker 2 00:18:04 They're on the dumping toast. Like let's just take our time. It's like, okay. They had a great time. And uh, that was
Speaker 0 00:18:12 So do you, have you ever got sick? Like it's one of the things I see it on TV. I see people jumping in are never going to do it, but you catch a cold afterwards. This is like, what happens to you? Is there a positive app thing that happens in your brain afterwards?
Speaker 2 00:18:27 It depends on the depth of the water. Like I, I've never gotten, I've never gotten sick from him cause it's, you're not, you're not cold enough for that long that it's going to have any adverse outcomes. And usually, um, the majority of places that we jump say in, in Edmonton, but like we do, I usually go up to here, right. Where you go. Cause there's a big safety part of it too. And like we have, there's usually divers that are out the whole two and that kind of thing. But I remember I did it in Lethbridge last year and they, uh, off a dock and they're like, okay, it's going to be this much. And then they jumped in and it's like, Oh man, I can't touch the bottom. You're just going down. And I was like, okay, then she going to come up. But that was, that was cold.
Speaker 0 00:19:09 He listened to this for a good
Speaker 2 00:19:10 Cause. And that's the, that's a part of it. It doesn't take scale. It just takes, I'm not going to go say bravery, maybe like a lack of,
Speaker 0 00:19:17 Yeah, there you go. So dude, that's it. The show's only 20 minutes, but before we let you leave today, um, shameless plug one more time before you leave. Who are you? How can people help your organization out? Just let's get as many people aware of what you guys do as possible please. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:19:33 Well, special Olympics. Um, we're uh, in, because like I said, your reaches is beyond just, uh, where we're at right now, but special Olympics, Alberta. Um, we have, uh, programs in many different communities like Fort Murray. Um, and we're always looking for volunteers. Um, obviously local supports always look forward to from other volunteers, people that want to give and all the big thing for us too. It's us for individuals with intellectual disabilities that don't know about us that are often intimidated because they think Olympics and they're like, Oh, okay. I'm not often here. I'm not good enough. It's like, no. Or for any age in any skill. Right. So, so come on out. So yeah, and like we, you can get us through our websites or our social media as a mole, through that. You can get all the information that you need.
Speaker 0 00:20:17 There we go. Cool. Awesome. Well, thank you very much for coming on. I really do appreciate it. This was great. So for everybody at home, this has been another episode of the Mac city morning show. Thank you very much for tuning in. My name has been and is Elliot pier. And from the bottom of my heart, it really does warm it that you have tuned in to spend time with us because you could be doing a lot of other things. So on that note, have a great day and we'll see you tomorrow. Peace.
Speaker 4 00:20:43 <inaudible> talk about quenching your ugly thirst.
