A Sun Valley family brought home their accomplishments Tuesday morning at the Breakfast of Champions.
Pirie and Jim Grossman hosted the annual Idaho Special Olympics gathering at the Limelight Room in Sun Valley, where the valley's movers and shakers, celebrities and athletes filled the room to overflowing.
The event is held to expand public awareness of the Special Olympic Games and athletes.
The Grossmans are chairs of the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games, to be held in Boise. It was at last year's Breakfast of Champions in Boise that the duo looked at one another across a table and knew they wanted the games to be held in Boise.
During the next six months, the Grossmans were able to secure sponsors and support in Idaho. Boise was selected by the International Special Olympics board of directors in May 2006. The event will be the largest multi-sport event ever held in Idaho.
The Special Olympics organization, formed by Eunice Kennedy Shriver in 1962, offers sports competition and training to people with intellectual disabilities.
Handling emcee duties was Ryan Panitz, who is also an Idaho Special Olympics coach and staff member. Speakers included Special Olympics athlete Kirk Grogan, 34, who was the Special Olympics 2003 Athlete of the Year. Grogan is on the Special Olympic Idaho board of directors and will compete in the 2007 summer games in China. He has won 25 medals in the five years he has been competing.
He shared the Special Olympic athletes' motto: "Let me win but if I cannot win let me be brave in the attempt."
Olympic gold medalist and Wood River Valley native Picabo Street picked up on that theme and spoke about the effect having the games in Boise will have on the state.
"The image that '09 will put forward to the world will be tremendous, and it's all in the hands of people I love to be around," she said with a nod to the Grossmans.
Boise State University President Robert Kustra also discussed the possibilities for Idaho, the city of Boise and, of course, the university. And he also plugged the university's Bronco football team, which will play in the Fiesta Bowl on New Year's Day. VIP tickets to the game with accommodations were among the silent auction items at the breakfast.
Local Olympics athletes who attended were Dick Fosbury, Terry Palmer, Johnny Iceland, Dates Fryberger, Maria Maricich and Zach Crist.
Special Olympics athletes included Courtney Grossman (Jim's sister), Abraham Krahn, Nathan Lago, Bobby Brashears, Grant Swindle, Ianna Hansen, Dusty Bugge, Lupe Velasco, Kayla Ayala, Cody Bouschelle, Ben Doan and Colleen Sullivan and Mathew Schoor.
