(Birmingham, AL) – On June 23, 2009, the City of Birmingham Mayor’s Office-Division of Youth Services (DYS) and the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) will partner to host an Olympic Day celebration from 2:00pm-3:00pm at the Western Area YMCA on Bessemer Road in Birmingham.
The event is FREE and will feature Paralympic Swimmer Angel Langner. Also, representatives from SWAC will be on-hand during the Olympic Day celebration to register youth for the Champions Clinic scheduled to take place on July 27, 2009 at the Lakeshore Foundation. This one-day camp will include a series of sports clinics. The camp is FREE, but pre-registration is required. Transportation, lunch, and t-shirts will be provided. Space is limited and registrations will be accepted until all spaces have been filled.
The first Olympic Day was held on June 23, 1948 and, since that time, people from around the world have come together in their respective cities to celebrate the spirit of the Olympic Movement. The cooperative celebration commemorates the June 23, 1894 convening of the first International Olympic Committee.
At the urging of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, during the January 2009 U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C., Mayor Larry Langford joined with fellow mayors across the country in a collective pledge of support for hosting the Olympic Games in Chicago in 2016. Birmingham’s cooperative Olympic Day celebration with other cities will send a clear message to the International Olympic Committee that our city and the United States of America support the Chicago 2016 bid for the Olympic Games. The site for the 2016 Olympic Games will be announced in October 2009.
For more information about Olympic Day, contact Cedric D. Sparks, Sr.-DYS Executive Director or Beverly Meadows-DYS Public Information Officer at 205-320-0879. For details about the one-day Champions Clinic at the Lakeshore Foundation, contact SWAC representative Eunice Elliott at 205-241-3467.
