Featuring Olympian Mark Heese, “The Sports History Alive” tour of local elementary schools continues again this year, with ten planned school visits during the spring and fall of 2018.
Heese, an Honoured Member of the Aurora Sports Hall of Fame (inducted in 2015), enlightens the students about Aurora’s rich sports history, and shares his and other Aurora Sport History stories. The tour includes artifacts such as his Olympic Bronze medal (Beach Volleyball, 1996 Olympics in Atlanta), the ever popular Mannequin Challenge contest and a Q&A with the students.
“Aurora is a great place to live and has always had a great tradition of being a sports town…. a place where there is so much opportunity to play sport, either recreationally or competitively,” says Heese, who also competed in the Olympics in Sydney (2000) and Athens (2004). “This school program is a way to contribute to that sports tradition, and ensure that the next generation of Aurorans continue to celebrate sport in the same way it has been celebrated in the past or in the present. I am very pleased to be part of it.”
“Education programs (those that reach Aurora’s youth), are a strategic priority for the Hall of Fame,” says Nancy Black, ASHOF’s Executive Director. “We are proud to be one of the few municipal Halls of Fame to have a specific in-class initiative designed to teach school age children about their community’s sport heritage. We are also grateful to the Ontario Trillium foundation who gave us the seed money to start the Hall, and more recently we have received funding support from the Town of Aurora and the Magna Hoedown, without which we would not be able to implement our programming to inspire future generations.”
More information, including photos of previous school visits, is available at https://aurorashof.ca/sports-history-alive/
For booking information, please contact Project Manager Karen Merk at ashofedu@gmail.com.
About the Aurora Sports Hall of Fame
The Aurora Sports Hall of Fame was established in November, 2013 by Sport Aurora and with the financial support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation. The Aurora Sports Hall of Fame (ASHOF) celebrates sport history and excellence and is dedicated to the recognition of the important place that sport has assumed within the fabric of Aurora. Every person who values the contribution of sport to our community and country is a part of that commemoration. More information is at https://aurorashof.ca.
For ASHOF media information, contact:
Mark Hunter LaVigne, MA, APR, FCPRS: mark.lavigne@hunterlavigne.com (416) 884-2018
For ASHOF general information, contact:
Nancy Black executive.director@aurorashof.ca (647) 632-6911
