At Aquinas we are focused on building a boy’s character through not only our Character Education Curriculum but also the various opportunities we can provide boys to grow their character, especially through service to others. At the start of this year we were gifted the opportunity to work with Special Olympics Australia, an international organisation which provides sporting opportunities for people with an intellectual disability or autism. In discussions with Tara Schwarze the State Manager for Special Olympics Western Australia, Aquinas agreed to support and hold three events this year and plan to continue our partnership into the future. Three events were decided up, swimming was held on 14^th May, Basketball held last Sunday 28^th May and a soccer tournament will be held on Saturday 17^th June. These events are part of the pathway for athletes aiming to representing Western Australia and Australia in future Special Olympics events.

In partnering with the Special Olympics we have provided Aquinas students an authentic and very powerful opportunity to serve others by helping run the competitions as well as competing side by side with the Special Olympics athletes during the events. The following boys should be congratulated for giving up their time to volunteer at these events. Tara and the other organisers were very complimentry of the swimming and basketball volunteers and I know they will be just as complimentray and impressed with the boys assisting at the upcoming soccer tournament.