A chance of a lifetime
Ontario woman competing in Special Olympics World Winter Games
By Larry Meyer
Argus Observer
Monday, February 9, 2009 10:40 AM PST
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| Robyn Foiles, an Ontario resident who is competing in the Special Olympics World Winter Games, shows some of the pins she has received from other competitors. Foiles plays floor hockey. |
ONTARIO — Robyn Foiles, 31, Ontario, is having the experience of a lifetime as she competes in the Special Olympics World Winter Games now going on throughout Idaho this week.
Foiles was excited Friday about having already met some of the competitors from other area and exchanging pins.
Foiles has competed in Special Olympics for many years, beginning when she was 6, but this is her first world games. In the past, she has competed in basketball, bowling, track and horseback riding.
But now, Foiles is on a floor hockey team in Caldwell that includes members from all over the region.
“I wanted to do something different,” she said. “We are all different ages. There are a lot of us.”
The team’s practice is usually once a week, but as the Olympics got closer, practices were increased to twice a week. One of her teammates flies in every week from Lewiston for practice.
“Floor hockey will be the Expo building at the fairgrounds,” Foiles said.
Packed and ready to go in her apartment, Foiles proudly showed two large bags, one full of equipment and one full set of clothes given to the athletes, including new pants, shirts and shoes.
“They spent a fortune on us,” she said.
At home in Ontario, Foiles, 31, and her husband, William, have been married two years.
Both Foiles went high school in Payette and kept in contact. William Foiles competed in the World Summer Games in 1999.
Robyn Foiles is a volunteer at Holy Rosary Medical Center and currently works in the print shop, where her duties include stapling books, putting together packets of a patient forms that are used in the various departments and filling boxes the supply room.
“I work three days a week. It keeps me out of trouble,” Foiles said, joking.
To Argus wrote on Feb 11, 2009 9:14 AM: