Last year The Salvation Army's Booth Industries in Toronto held its first ever sports and Special Olympics fair. Booth Industries is a vocational rehabilitation program for adults and youth with psychiatric illnesses living in the community. Individuals had the opportunity to connect with fellow participants and learn first-hand about many recreation activities happening in the community, such as bocce ball, floor hockey, softball, soccer, curling and bowling. Participants showed off their sports equipment, pictures and trophies, and told stories about the fun they have in their sport. By the end of the event, 20 people had signed up for further information about one or more of the activities.

Danny Moniz spoke about dragon boating and his involvement in the Spirit Challenge race through Christian Horizons. After his talk, six participants signed up and were ready to join him in dragon boating. A few days later, however, they learned that the available spaces had disappeared. Booth Industries vowed to do what they could to participate next year, and expressed their interest to Kerri-Jean Winteler, the coordinator of the Spirit Challenge committee. In a surprising turn of events, just one day before the final practice, Kerri-Jean called and told them that she still had some spaces available if Booth Industries was interested. Within 24 hours, Booth's spirited participants had filled five spots in the boats. Then, on race day, the boat with their representatives took 2nd place.

This year, Karen Church, program manager for Booth Industries, joined the Spirit Challenge Committee and arranged for Booth Industries to share a boat with Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation. “We call our combined team the Toronto Dragons,” says Karen Church. “Excitement is building as our team practices for this year's event on June 21 at the Toronto International Dragon Boat Race Festival. We hope to see you cheering us on!”