Meet A City of Dalton Employee: Lisa Hughey, Program Manager With Parks and Recreation
Monday, April 25th, 2022
The City of Dalton is special because of the people who work hard every day to make it the best place to live, work, and play in Georgia. The City is proud of the men and women working to serve our residents. This article is part of a continuing series of profiles we'll be running from time to time to spotlight the special people who are making a difference in our City.
Lisa Hughey is a program manager with the Dalton Parks and Recreation Department and is in charge of a number of different programs that make our city more fun, but perhaps the biggest mark she makes on our community is with her work coordinating the local Special Olympics program. The mission of Special Olympics as stated on their website is to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, giving them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in a sharing of gifts, skills and friendship with their families, other Special Olympics athletes, and the community. The local program certainly accomplishes that mission thanks in large part to Hughey's work and dedication.
Here's more about Hughey and her work with the DPRD:
When Lisa Hughey volunteered at Special Olympics events as a student at Northwest Whitfield High School she had no idea that she’d one day be the person in charge of those events. Today, though, she’s wrapping up her 17th year as a program manager with the Dalton Parks and Recreation Department and is the coordinator for the local Special Olympics.
For Hughey, it’s both a job and a calling.
“I love all the participants. I mean, they become family. You know their parents, they become family,” Hughey said. “I get texts every day from athletes who have been in the program since before I’ve been here saying ‘Lisa, we love you!’ and when you see them you get smiles, you get hugs, you get love, it’s just… that’s the best part is all the unconditional love you get and you get to give to them.”
Hughey studied business at Covenant College and didn’t plan to work in recreation or therapeutics. She got involved with the Special Olympics when her son Tyler first participated in an equestrian event with the Special Olympics almost 20 years ago.
“It started out because he started out doing the horse show and the first time… we did everything wrong. We came back again and we loved it and we said, ‘okay, we want him to do something else.’ And the first time we chaperoned him and everyone talked to us like they’d known us forever and they just loved on us and from there on we were just hooked,” Hughey said of their first experiences with Special Olympics.
Hughey had been staying at home with her son during his early years because there were no daycares or preschools in the area with programs for his needs. When St. Mark’s began a preschool program for children with special needs, she began to work there. Then she moved on to the school system in special education. Through her family’s experiences with Special Olympics and also her work in the schools, she became involved in the Dalton Parks and Recreation Department. The DPRD had taken over Special Olympics programming from Whitfield County in the mid-1990s. When the program coordinator left the department, Hughey began working full-time as a program manager.
“I had a lot of knowledge and I’d worked [part time for the department] for two years so when the lady who had been here left and when this job became available I applied and here I am,” she said.
In addition to coordinating for the Special Olympics, Hughey also oversees other programs such as the Beast B4 The Feast Thanksgiving Day race at Raisin Woods Park, recreational and social programs for people ages 16 and up with disabilities, and she also coordinates the 4th of July celebration.
The Special Olympics events, though, are her main passion. The DRPD coordinates a bowling event, a basketball skills competition, and also the track and field games for Special Olympic athletes from Dalton and Whitfield County Schools. The track and field event in April was the first in two years due to COVID-related cancellations.
“When they go and they compete and they do well it’s just so big. It follows them through life,” Hughey said. ‘When my mother goes to a special Olympics event she just cries from joy the whole time that she’s there… there was one event, we had two girls competing, there were six people in their division. One got first, the other finished last. And when they called the name of the girl who finished sixth, she was celebrating and cheering herself on and my mother just cried because she was just as joyful as the person who finished first and it’s wonderful.”
In addition to the positive experiences that come from play and competition, Special Olympics programs can benefit the athletes in many other ways. Hughey pointed out that the organization has a program called “Healthy Athletes” where participants can see optometrists or dentists when they go to the state summer games or other big events. Bausch and Lomb has donated eyeglasses to the program.
To participate in Special Olympics, an athlete must be at least 8 years old, though there are training programs for younger participants to start to get involved. There’s no age limit, and athletes can participate in some programs throughout their lives.
“We actually have five athletes and a coach who are going to the USA Games in Orlando to compete,” Hughey said. “One of the unified teams going to the USA games, dad is 80 and the son is 53. On the other team one is 31 and the other is in his 50s. So, there’s no age limit.”
The local athletes traveling to the USA Games aren’t Dalton’s only connection to the event. The Special Olympic Torch Run relay from Illinois to Orlando will pass through Dalton on the afternoon of May 26th and the public is encouraged to attend. Police and firefighters from local agencies will be running the torch along with Special Olympic athletes from City Hall to Lakeshore Park where there will be a rally at the soccer stadium. It’s a great chance for local residents to get involved and cheer on some very special and worthy athletes.
“There’s so much energy and so much hype when you go to games, and people cheer and yell,” said Hughey with a smile. “It’s just a lot of energy.”
