Celebrity Guest: PAUL ROSEN

We would like to welcome Paul Rosen as our guest for the 2012 event! Paul is one of the most renowned speakers in Canada and he’ll join us to tell his story – a high-impact, entertaining message on overcoming adversity, world-class athletic competition, and the power of living a dreamer’s life.

On June 9, 1999, at age 39, Paul’s right leg was cut off above the knee. Within one year of his amputation, Paul mastered the game of Sledge Hockey, tried out for, and made the Canadian National Sledge Hockey Team. One year later he became the oldest rookie in the history of the game – playing for Team Canada at the 2002 Salt Lake City Paralympics. Paul remains an integral, and inspirational leader of the top-ranked Canadian National Sledge Hockey Team. He is currently ranked as the number one Sledge Hockey goaltender in the world.

Our 2012 Poet Laureate: DONNA MORRISSEY

Donna Morrissey has written three vivid novels cradled in the Newfoundland culture and yet universal in the emotional upheaval and transcending of its characters. She has received awards in Canada, the U.S. and England and was most recently shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize. Reviewers have compared her depictions of Newfoundland’s terrain and people to the worlds summoned up by Hardy and Faulkner. Donna’s fiction has been translated into several different languages, and has proven especially popular in Japan, Holland and Germany.

Donna is also a scriptwriter: Clothesline Patch (a short story) won a Gemini for best production, as well as the best picture prize at the San Francisco Film Festival. Her latest novel, What They Wanted, moves away from Newfoundland and onto the oilfields of Alberta, and has been hitting the best seller lists across the country and was shortlisted for the Independent Booksellers award.

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"In the days before radios and newspapers, nothing happened until somebody wrote a poem about it." - Peter Gzowski

Peter Gzowski was a lover of poetry, that is why every year at the PGI we have a personality take on the role of the Poet Laureate. The Poet Laureate spends the day with everyone at the tournament and as the day progresses they write a poem. It captures the cause, the spirit of the day and of course, helps capture the joy of reading and writing.