Joey Payeur
Laureen Peters just joined the ranks of Ontario’s correctional officers and now she’ll get to participate in one of the most highly-honourable events any of them could take part in.
The Fort Frances resident randomly was selected as the Fort Frances Jail’s representative to help carry the “Flame of Hope” torch on its final leg into Nipissing University in North Bay on Jan. 29 as part of the opening ceremonies for the 2015 Special Olympics Provincial Winter Games.
“I’m really excited,” said Peters, who just completed her training to become a correctional officer at the end of October in Thunder Bay.
“One of our trainers in Thunder Bay is very involved in the torch run and got me interested about it,” she noted.
Peters was among seven local correctional officers who threw their name in the hat and turned out to be the one picked for the honour.
“I always like to contribute to a community when I can, and it’s a wonderful thing to be chosen being that I’m involved in sports myself,” said Peters, who is a longtime participant and former organizing member of the Borderland Soccer League and the Fort Frances Women’s Volleyball League.
“There will be correctional officers from all different regions there so it’s going to be a great opportunity for me to network, as well,” she added.
And Peters isn’t content with being the only one to benefit from her good fortune.
“I’m definitely interested to see if we can do more here in our community with regards to the torch run,” she remarked.
“I know we have several Special Olympics athletes in town and I would love to get them more involved, maybe set up a five-km run or mini-run of some kind to give them a chance to do their part.”
Peters got a taste of the strong public sentiment attached to the Special Olympics movement while she was doing her job training in Thunder Bay.
“About 20 of us got together as part of the community hours’ portion of our training and took two-hour shifts doing a ‘mall toll’ to help collect money that will go towards the Games,” she detailed.
“In just one day, we brought in $7,500.”
Peters will take part in an all-day workshop the day before doing her part in the torch relay, which will feature various presentations about Special Olympics based on the athletes involved in this year’s Games.
She expects the run portion to be about four km long, although Peters doesn’t expect it to be an easy task—even with her renewed focus on her own physical regimen over the past year.
“We’ll see what ends up happening in the cold weather of the end of January,” she chuckled.
