Spits, locals dine in hangar

Members of the Windsor community dined with local athletes and members of the Windsor Spitfires at the first “Breakfast with the Spits” Sept. 29 at Windsor International Airport.

The event was in honour of Sports Day in Canada, a national celebration of sports from grassroots to high-performance levels. Sports Day, which is in its third year, is held annually by communities in September all over Canada.

The breakfast, held in the Canadian Historical Aircraft Association Hangar at the airport, was part of the Windsor Spitfires Foundation, an initiative which began in 2006 and is designed to support local children’s charities. To date, the foundation has raised nearly $250,000. At $30 per plate or $500 per table, all funds raised from the breakfast will go to the International Children’s Games to be held in Windsor in August 2013.

The ICG were first held in 1968 in Celje, Slovenia. They were founded by Yugoslavian professor Metod Klemenc as a way to promote worldwide peace and harmony, while providing an understanding of different cultural backgrounds. The games are now governed by the IOC and over 35,000 children from 74 countries have participated.

Felicia Krautner, coordinator of community relations for the Spitfires, said the ICG fit in with the Windsor Spitfires Foundation’s goal of helping children.

“The foundation helps and contributes to different organizations that allow and help kids do what they want to do,” Krautner said. “We’re here to help the International Children’s Games raise funds so that our athletes can compete. Our thing is we want to enhance an athlete and send them anywhere we can so they can compete.”

Spitfires head coach Bob Boughner was one of the speakers at the event. Boughner has been conducting charity work for the past three decades in Windsor-Essex. He recently reached $1 million in charitable donations.

“It’s about athletes helping athletes and our organization giving back to the community, which is a perfect fit for our foundation which has supported children’s charities since 2006,” Boughner said.

The breakfast raised $9,200 for the ICG.

 
Anne Snowdon, associate professor of management science at the University of Windsor, was one of the keynote speakers at the event. She won the Lebel award in 2008 for her efforts in “helping to fill an educational void in the community.” The Lebel award is granted for outstanding contributions to Assumption University and the community which it serves. Snowdon is also chair of the Ivey Centre for Health Innovation and Leadership.

Snowdon said the upcoming games are about more than children from different countries competing against one another. She said she is working with city officials to build something which will live beyond the conclusion of the games.

“The City of Windsor came to us to collaborate with them on creating a legacy project for the International Children’s Games,” Snowdon said. “I’m a nurse by training, I’ve spent my career trying to strengthen and keep kids healthy and this was just a great opportunity for Windsor hosting a global event to create a legacy that helps children stay physically fit, active, healthy eating and healthy social relationships which are all the foundational elements of child health.”

The legacy project Snowdon refers to is an online social media tool called the “Passport Program.” The program was developed by MBA students from the Odette School of Business at the University of Windsor.

“The Passport Program is an online tool to help children and support them to make good choices on being physically fit, good healthy food choices, good choices with friends, family and social relationships,” Snowdon said. “The legacy is this passport social networking tool will get passed to each country that hosts the game going forward so a Windsor-Essex tool around child health now becomes the world’s tool.”