Agganis Special Olympics set for next week in Saugus

SAUGUS – The Seventh Annual Agganis Special Olympics and Saugus Special Needs Festival will take place at the Saugus High School athletic field next week and will feature a softball tournament, an amusement park, a parade and live music.The five-day festival starts on Wednesday, July 11 and runs through Sunday the 15th, with Special Olympics Day taking place on Saturday, July 14 at 9:30 a.m. The competition will kick off with a softball tournament Saturday morning between Special Olympic teams from around the area, while special needs students from Saugus will compete in an obstacle course.”It raises money for a good cause, which is the special needs students in the Saugus public schools,” said Bob Davis, who organizes the event with Steve Agganis every year. “It’s a very worthwhile cause and gives everybody a good, warm feeling for the day. It’s a good way to honor the special needs students.”At 11 a.m. the parade of athletes and the opening ceremony will take place with Boston Celtics announcer Eddie Palladino taking the reins as master of ceremonies.”We play a game in the morning and then have the opening ceremonies which is a parade of the athletes and presentations,” said Davis. “We have a color guard and motorcycles and a police cruiser, and things like that. We actually bring the Special Olympics torch in on a motorcycle and bring it up to a cauldron which is lit and stays lit for the rest of the day.”The Uncle Steve Band from New Hampshire will take the stage once again this year for a free nighttime concert on Saturday, July 14 from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.”Steve Furbish, his son, daughter-in-law and other band members put on a great show and help us every year providing some great music,” said Agganis, in a press release.Agganis said he and Davis started the event after his son Gerry, now 8, was born with Down syndrome.”When we were doing the work at World Series Park for Bob Davis, we did all the excavation for nothing,” said Agganis. “Bob asked me, ‘What can I do in return?’ and I just said, ‘I want these kids to have a day to play ball together.”From there Agganis said they got in touch with the Massachusetts chapter of the Special Olympics, and the rest is history.”After that it just kept getting bigger and bigger,” said Agganis. “I can’t thank the town officials, the Town Manager and the selectmen enough for supporting us and we’ve had a lot of businesses stepping to the plate to help us out this year. We have a lot of volunteers.”Davis and Agganis have been running the event together for seven years, and Davis said they first started at World Series Park where the event was held for four years, but then decided to “ramp it up” with a full carnival.”It started off as a tournament and a festival at the park with entertainment and raffles,” said Davis. “But we decided to try and make some more money out of it and to change it so the money went to the Saugus special needs kids.”According to Davis, they were able to raise $30,000 from last year’s event which was used this past school year for various activities and supplies including field trips and iPads for special needs students.Pledges from businesses or individuals can be made prior to the event with actual donations announced at the event. Anyone who would like to make a monetary pledge can contact Steve Agganis at 617-908-7281. Donations may be sent to Agganis Special Needs Fund at 7 Felmont Ave. Saugus, MA 01906. Checks should be made payable to Agganis Special Needs Fund.Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].