BY DAVE CHOATE

Special Olympics of New Hampshire has been very special for Tamy Pinard.

Pinard has been a coach, a supervisor and a jack of all trades for the Special Olympics over the last four years, often putting in more than 30 hours per week as a volunteer. An injury has forced her to leave her regular job and limits her mobility, but she said it hasn’t and will not stop her from continuing the work she loves so dearly.

“I get more back than I put in, I think,” she said. “The kids are absolutely amazing, and I just get pure enjoyment out of working with them.”

The Goffstown athletes participated in the summer Special Olympics for the first time last year and take part in track, basketball, street hockey, bowling, skiing, golf and mini-golf during the regular year-round season.

Pinard serves as the local program coordinator for Goffstown, which means coordinating events for the roughly 30 Special Olympic athletes in Goffstown. She also maintains an estimated 25 adult volunteers and eight unified partners, or kids around the same age as the athletes.

Pinard said the greatest challenge in her job is often getting people to give up their initial wariness.

“Some people just don’t get it until you have them get together with the kids. I think a lot of people are afraid of these kids until they really meet them and see how wonderful they are,” she said.

Once they have worked with the kids, Pinard said many come back to help in the future. Her husband and one of her two daughters assist her on a regular basis, she said, and more than 34 volunteers, athletes and well-wishers showed up for this year’s Penguin Plunge in Hampton Beach, which helps to raise money for the Special Olympics.

Pinard said she can’t help but be upbeat about her work even though the last couple of years have been tough ones. Since 2005, one of Goffstown’s Special Olympians passed away in that span and she has had surgery on an injury that keeps her from pacing the sidelines like she used to.

Still, Pinard is quick to list off the program’s successes and said the rough times have only served to bring the athletes and volunteers closer together.

“We’re stronger now than ever,” she said.

Pinard said she encourages any athletes over the age of 9 and volunteers from any walk of Goffstown to help out with the Special Olympics. Athletes are welcome regardless of whether they are mentally or physically handicapped.

When she speaks of her many athletes and volunteers, it’s easy to tell just how passionate Pinard is about what she does. She describes the room in her house full of Special Olympics memorabilia with fondness, but she also said she has no plans to let them be just memories.

“I came into this on a whim, and I’m hooked for life now. We learn the concept together and get to play together, and everybody always has a blast,” Pinard said.