Mel Lavoie has spent 43 years with the Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB), but his dedication to serving the community goes even further. He recently served as the alpine athletes coach for Team Ontario at the Canadian Special Olympics Nationals in Calgary. In fact, for the past eight years, he has been coaching ski and golf, and acts as Community Coordinator for Special Olympics Kitchener-Waterloo along with his wife Sharon Lavoie.
The 2024 National Winter Games took place at Winsport, Canada's Olympic park, where Mel coached 12 alpine skiers in the Novice division. The alpine athletes won 24 medals, but for Mel, the National Games were special for other reasons.
He says, "A lot of the athletes had the goal [of winning medals] in mind" in order to attend the Special Olympics World Games in 2025. However, Mel says that he stressed with his team that, "We're going to cheer [for] everyone. We're going in as a team we're all going to work as a team." Indeed, he noticed that while the athletes all tried their best, they also maintained sportsmanship, recalling the Special Olympics oath: "Let me win. But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt."
One of Mel's favourite moments from the National Games was the opening ceremony, where the torch was brought in on horseback. He says, "it was really special to see the racing and seeing the athletes having a good time."
When asked what makes him come back after eight years of coaching, he says, "It's the athletes. They're like family." He says that the Special Olympics is also about developing relationships: "I've come to know the athletes. We've become friends I always look forward to seeing them."
He is also learning new things as he coaches. For instance, he had to receive his level 1 teaching certificate to attend the Calgary Nationals. He's learning new things about the sport, coaching and fostering relationships.
Mel's interests and learning has also motivated his more than four decades of service to the WRDSB. Currently, Mel works as a project coordinator, making physical spaces more accessible for people with disabilities. He sees a clear connection between his time coaching the Special Olympics and his role with the WRDSB. "I have a good understanding of the needs our athletes have," he says. "I've always enjoyed getting the [WRDSB] facilities better prepared for people with disabilities."
Mel's roots at the WRDSB run deep. After his father began working for the Waterloo County School Board, Mel started working in the mail room during high school. He also helped landscape and fertilize the school yards in the summer and worked as a security guard before managing portables and roofing. The first school he operated construction for was Lester B. Pearson and since then, he has worked at multiple schools across WRDSB, learning from each one. With every project, he asks himself: "How do we make this school better than the last one? How do we make it more accessible?"
Mel has applied to coach at the World Games in Torino, Italy in 2025. He is really hoping that he is selected.
"Once you enjoy something, you do it better and you want to do it more often with coaching, once you enjoy it, you want to get better, want to get the team better and the [athletes] are always ready to get better." As motivation for his work, Mel says that he likes helping people out and making their lives easier: "[It's] an important role that we should be doing."
