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The Big Give is an event supporting central Victorian community groups. The Bendigo Advertiser will be profiling several of the registered campaigns each week until the initiative ends with a 24-hour giving day on September 1.
While the world watches the feats of the Olympians competing in Rio, central Victorian athletes with intellectual disabilities are training.
Bendigo is home to a Special Olympics program and hosts an annual inter-regional event.
The Games of Faith have a focus on aquatics and ten pin bowling, which is reflective of the sports the home team competes in.
Special Olympics Bendigo chair Pam Ferrari said 24 central Victorian athletes competed in either sport, or sometimes both.
The two-day event is named Games of Faith, in honour of previous patron and Olympic swimming star Faith Leech.
Bendigo Mayor Rod Fyffe is Special Olympics Bendigo’s current patron.
“We hadn’t had inter-regional games in Bendigo for some years, and we decided that, so our athletes could compete at home and their families and carers could see them compete, we needed to have inter-regional games in Bendigo,” Ms Ferrari said.
But Special Olympics Bendigo will need a little help making the next Games of Faith happen.
It has launched a Big Give campaign to help raise money to hire an indoor pool for the aquatics events.
Ms Ferrari said the City of Greater Bendigo usually assisted with the hire fee for the Peter Krenz Leisure Centre in Eaglehawk, but was unable to contribute this year.
The Big Give campaign, which aims to raise $3500, will also help pay for new uniforms.
“They need new tracksuits… [and] the aquatics athletes need new bathers every year,” Ms Ferrari said.
“As a committee, we are mindful of costs for athletes with small fixed incomes.”
The Big Give is a crowdfunding initiative aimed at supporting causes that give back to the community.
It started on August 1 and ends with a community giving day on September 1, when registered campaigns stand to win a share in a $30,000 prize pool based on donations on the day.
The Special Olympics is an international organisation founded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver in 1968 to improve the lives of people with intellectual disabilities.
Two Bendigo Special Olympics athletes have been selected for the 2016 Trans Tasman Tournament in New Zealand in November.
Zachary Flint and Tara Smith will be among the 120 Australian athletes with an intellectual disability representing their state or territory at the tournament, which is a partnership of Special Olympics Australia and Special Olympics New Zealand.