Cards, Karen Gaffney to Team Up in Champlain Swim Crossing

June 23, 2010

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. (June 23, 2010) - SUNY Plattsburgh men's hockey student-athlete Eric Satim will be joining motivational speaker Karen Gaffney in her quest to swim across Lake Champlain on Sept. 18. This marks Gaffney's second visit to the North Country since last October, when the North Country Down Syndrome Association and Cardinal Athletics welcomed her to speak to a captivated audience in Giltz Auditorium on the college campus.

Gaffney, a graduate of Portland Community College and an accomplished swimmer, is an exceptional young lady with Down syndrome and president of the Karen Gaffney Foundation based in Portland, Ore. The non-profit organization is dedicated to championing the journey to full inclusion in families, schools, the workplace and the community for people with developmental disabilities. She is doing this by creating awareness and calling attention to the tremendous capabilities of people with disabilities. She accomplishes this through presentations and workshops delivered all over the country.

Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwcfnQjwVR0 to hear an interview conducted by WIRY's Bob Pooler between Plattsburgh men's hockey coach Bob Emery and NCDSA's Cindy Rotz about Gaffney, prior to her first visit to Plattsburgh. The audio is available on the official YouTube page for Cardinal Athletics, http://www.youtube.com/CardinalsSportsInfo.

A senior-to-be from Montreal, Quebec, Satim was named both the team's most valuable player and winner of the Chip Grabowski Award for the 2009-2010 season. The center recorded a second-team-leading 27 points on 11 goals and 16 assists despite missing several games due to injury, earning All-State University of New York Athletic Conference honors for the second straight season. He has career totals of 31 goals and 56 assists for 87 points in 73 games played.