Boston bombing survivor to speak in Windsor

Organizers of the Windsor Essex Sports Persons of the Year Awards are preparing to celebrate their 11^th annual event with a non-sports related twist.

Boston Marathon bombing survivor Heather Abbott will visit Windsor March 28 to share her story with the sports community as the WESPY’s keynote speaker.

“We bring in a keynote speaker every year to address the audience, which has been a very highly anticipated portion of the event,” said WESPY’s founder Domenic Papa. “We want to make the event special for everybody. We try to make it so if you’re not tied to an athlete or a team, we want to give you a reason to come anyway. That’s where the guest speaker comes in.”

The event’s first decade of awards ceremonies featured other keynote speakers including Cincinnati Reds baseball legend Pete Rose, Washington Redskins Super Bowl champion quarterback Joe Theismann, Montreal Canadiens Hall of Fame goaltender Ken Dryden and double Olympic champion speed skater Catriona Le May Doan.

“This year we took a sporting event and found a speaker. Even though she’s not a big name athlete like previous years we brought in, Heather Abbott comes from a sporting event that had a horrific tragedy take place, being the Boston Marathon bombing scenario,” said Papa. “She had to get her leg amputated as a result. Through a great deal of courage, a great deal of ambition and a smart approach, she has taken that tragic event and she’s not going to let it take her down.”

Abbott created the Heather Abbott Foundation with a mission to help provide customized prostheses to those who have suffered limb loss through traumatic circumstances and envisions a world where these individuals can live the life they love.

“Heather speaks all over North America now and she brings a great message. That’s what we really look for in our speaker. Somebody who has made it through adverse times and still found a way to rise to the top,” said Papa. “Heather is doing that and has done that although she’s not a great big athlete name. But stemming from the event which she is coming from it was a fit for us. We like to try different things to make the WESPYs special and one way we can do that is through our speaker. It was a bit of a twist and we’ve had a lot of interesting comments since announcing Heather as our speaker but they’ve all been positive. We’re excited about it.”

The event has grown to over a dozen male and female sports categories and features nine major awards, 33 WESPY’s are handed out on their big night.

“We try to get everybody involved. Athletes with disabilities, they have their own category. They don’t normally get much publicity, but every year they get a lot of publicity with this award,” said Papa. “You have our major sports, football, basketball, baseball, hockey and soccer. But it’s those other sports that don’t get a lot of notoriety. They get it on this night. They’re very appreciative. It’s all about them. It’s their night. And we make that very clear.”

The WESPY’s 10-year history of winners and nominees is pretty significant, boasting winners such as Dallas Cowboys defensive tackle Tyrone Crawford, NHL players Ryan Ellis (Nashville Predators) and Joshua Bailey (New York Islanders), Canadian national basketball player Miah-Marie Langlois and Super Bowl winner Luke Wilson who was nominated in the baseball category and not football.

“If anyone was to ever look at our past recipients, not including the nominees, I think they’d be pretty impressed and it would be pretty eye-opening to them,” said Papa. “So many have gone on to do so many great things. We’re very fortunate. We don’t realize how deep we are in sports. The selection process gets tougher and tougher each year and this year was no different. It’s tough. We have a lot of depth when it comes to athletics.”