Our own Skagit County Special Olympian, Joan Good, was selected to represent Special Olympics Washington and Team USA at the upcoming 2007 World Summer Games from October 2nd through October 11th in Shanghai, China.

Joan was born in 1965 in Minneapolis Minnesota, lived in California for a while and then moved to Washington in 1979. She lives in the community of Mount Vernon.

She worked for many years at Burlington Thrifty Foods and is now employed at the Mount Vernon Haggen grocery store where she has worked for three years in Customer Services.

Joan has participated in the Spin Skagit Cycling Program for the past ten years. She also competes in ice skating, basketball, volleyball, and bowling. She is known as an awesome teammate because, although she loves to compete and win medals, she can be always found making sure her team members are doing well whether she's rushing to help an upset team member or the first one to congratulate a victory.

The Kiwanis Club honored her with the “Everyday Hero”award. With this award, local Kiwanis Clubs recognize individuals who contribute to making life better for others and the community better for us all.

This past April she became the owner of a new 27-speed bike and is proud to say she will have it paid off before she leaves for competition in China!

Joan will be traveling this July to Nashville to participate in the Team USA Training Camp scheduled for July 12-16 at Vanderbilt University. When she returns to Washington, she will be training locally with Special Olympic coach Tim Holloran. Currently, her training consists of lots of power walking to and from work along with biking with Spin Skagit which includes Special Olympic coaches as well as coaches from the local Skagit Bicycle Club. Joan wrapped up the recent weekend of Summer Games cycling competition with another handful of medals.

Joan is excited about this opportunity of a lifetime to travel to China and is looking forward to competing with and meeting athletes from over 150 countries.