While many students spend their summer at a part time job or relaxing in the sun, Maria Patterson is planning to get her hands dirty, a half a world away.
 Maria is joining a crew of students who will be building a school in Ghana. She will spend July in the coastal west African country with a group from Me-to-We, a volunteer travel company dedicated to overseas volunteer experiences.
    Last summer Maria was in France on an exchange and this summer she wanted a more hands on experience.
    “I will be building a school,” said Maria, and she has the travel bug.  “I’ve always wanted to do this.”
As much as she enjoys the experience of travel, her intentions are altruistic.
    She will be a part of a team of students, about 25, who will be working on the school project, mostly from Canada.
    “I think you have to go out of your way to help someone else and I really enjoy helping people, it is something I am passionate about.  I think more people should go on trips like this to see how lucky we are to grow up in a place like we do, the government we have and the conditions we are born in to,” said Maria.

The Interact Youth club and Maria Patterson are teaming up for a spaghetti dinner to raise funds for the Club’s international activities and Patterson’s summer excursion to Ghana to build a school . Member of the club include (back; l-r) Landon Brown, Alana Augart, Laura Jensen, Madison Colberg, Maria Patterson, Megan Rowbottom and Kortney Giffin, along with (front; l-r)  Seun Makinde, Natalie Westman, Taylor Snow and Allie Ruckman.

    To participate, Maria has a fundraising goal of $5,000 and already she is half way there with generous donations from the Royal Purple and the Rotary Club. The Carbon Bottle Depot has also helped to support her trek.
    To support her trip she is hosting a joint Spaghetti Supper with the Rotary Youth Interact Club at the Midland Hall on Sunday, March 17 at 5 p.m.  Admission is a simple donation and she is planning to have some students enter from the high school performing. The funds from the dinner will be split between Patterson’s travel expenses and an international project the Interact Club is working on.
    Individuals or businesses interested in supporting Maria’s trip can contact her at 403-823-6726 or email maria-patterson@hotmail.com.

    Thanks to the dedication of coaches like Drumheller’s Martin McSween, the commitment of the athletes and support of families and mission staff, Canada is 109 medals richer after the Pyeongchang 2013 Special Olympic Winter games.
    McSween, a Canada Special Olympic Team alpine skiing coach just returned from the games that kept him running all directions. The 15 alpine skiers earned 23 medals.
    “It was amazing… it was interesting, fun, exciting, frustrating, challenging and a lot of work,” chuckles McSween. “We did well on the world stage.”
    This stage included 102 Canadian athletes in a field of world-class competitors. The games went from January 29 to February 5 in South Korea.
“There were 111 countries from around the world competing in seven sports. This is the biggest sporting event in Asia this year. Every one is talking about Sochi but always the year before there is the World Special Olympic Winter Games. All the nations that are at the generic and Paralympic Games are there,” he said.

Martin McSween (bottom right) with the Team Canada Special Olympic Alpine Ski team in South Korea. The Team won 23 medals at the World Special Olympic Winter Games.

    McSween was witness to some great performances from his athletes even with illness running through their ranks.  Michael Gilbert of Quebec was at his third World Special Olympic Games and he won his third hat trick of gold medals in an incredible performance.
    Most all of his skiers showed outstanding result at the international level.
    Another highlight was the team’s honorary coach Catriona Le May Doan, supporting the team in every way possible. There were other sports celebrities with other teams including basketball behemoth Xiao Ming with the Chinese team.
    “It was fun to see all of that,” said Martin, adding there was great camaraderie on the part of the athletes.
    “They made great friendships and connections. At games there are opportunities to make connections around the world,” said McSween adding there were a few familiar faces from the 2009 World Games.
    He said the organization and the venues were suburb and he loved the food. Their hosts entertained them with tours and sight seeing with very helpful chaperones.
    This was McSween’s second World Special Olympic Winter Games after attending the Boise Idaho Games in 2009.