By Nina Vlahou

It certainly wasn't a coincidence that the celebration which took place on 14th February, made people feel great love and joy all over the world. The ceremony took place in the heart of Athens, at the King George Hotel to celebrate the «Anniversary of Maturity» of the Special Olympics in Greece. It was the opening ceremony for the «Lighting of the Flame of Hope» for the International Special Games that will be held in Nagano, Japan in 2005.

There were great emotional moments, when the benefactors, sponsors and supporters were honoured for their contribution to the event «Invest in Life» which brought joy and hope to 6.500 Greek athletes who were trained by 800 volunteers in 26 Spring and Winter Athletic events.

The hosts were Ioanna Despotopoulou, Chairman of the Special Olympics International, and Timothy Shiver, John Kennedy's nephew, who has devoted his life to all these strong-minded athletes, who defy their disabilities and come up winners in the athletic stadiums.

Konstantinos Karamanlis and his wife Natassa were honoured for their continuous support to the athletics «Life Winners» programme, but were unavailable to accept their award due to a death in the immediate family. The Minister of Domestic Affairs Mr. Prokopis Pavlopoulos accepted it on their behalf.

Honourary Awards were given to the Greek Parliament, to Fani Palli-Petralia, Minister of Sports and to the Deputy Minister, George Orfanos, to Spyros Kapralos (Chairman of ASE) to Christos Panagopoulos, Chairman of ERT (State TV) accepted the honourary award on behalf of the channel for their continuous support. Honourary Awards were additionally offered to all the companies that sponsored the Greek expedition.

Source: Apofasi, Feb. 14th 2005