Matt Aitken and Prime Minister John Key.
Matt Aitken had only been involved with Special Olympics for three years when he applied for the Global Messenger programme. But in that short time, Matt has been involved in swimming, athletics, football and bowling and attended the 2009 National Summer Games in Palmerston North in athletics.
Matt’s aims as a Global Messenger include talking to schools and organisations about what Special Olympics is about and sharing experiences he has had through sport and the growth he has achieved as an athlete.
Matt would like to be a Special Olympics coach – he already assists the track coach with the junior athletes and was the Otago Independence Games Captain for two years. At those Games, he coached the team and won the trophy for ‘Best Overall Male’.
Outside of Special Olympics, Matt keeps very busy with leadership and community activities. Matt was part of ‘Our Stories’ from CCS and Idea Services and, in 2007, attended Outward Bound. In 2009, he was a presenter at the Chromosome 18 Conference, was named a prefect at Otago Boys High School and won the Attitude Courage Award.