Two local athletes who train at the University of Windsor will be among the 7,000 relay participants in the Rick Hansen 25th Anniversary Many in Motion Relay, coming through Windsor on Tuesday, November 22.

The relay will retrace the Canadian segment of the original Man in Motion World Tour, which started August 24, 2011, in Cape Spear, Newfoundland and Labrador, and finishes in Vancouver, British Columbia, on May 22, 2012. This journey of more than 12,000 kilometres will visit over 600 communities and celebrate the achievements of everyday heroes, while bringing attention to accessibility issues.

The relay will cross the UWindsor campus at approximately 4 p.m. and will finish with an end of day celebration at the WFCU Centre in the city’s east end from 5 to 8:30 p.m. The official opening ceremony in the main bowl will be followed by live entertainment, a scrimmage sledge hockey game between the Ice Bullets and Windsor Spitfire alumni, as well as a free public skate and trade show in the walkway. The event is free with designated accessible parking available.

Find more information on the relay’s Windsor route.

Michael Ayotte, a UWindsor human kinetics student and captain of the Lancer golf team, will carry the medal for a leg of the relay’s Windsor visit. Ayotte is involved in a number of community initiatives to support services to individuals with epilepsy and is involved in the care of a sibling with a disability. He is an Ontario Scholar who has served as co-chair of the Leadership Camp Committee at R.S.McLaughlin Collegiate and Vocational Institute; is a member of the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s STARK Ambassador Program in the Faculty of Human Kinetics; and is an executive committee member of the K1N Program in the Faculty of Human Kinetics.

Virginia McLachlan is a track and field athlete who trains five days a week at the University of Windsor with the Windsor Legion Track and Field Club. A former Windsor Bulldogs Disabled Sports Club athlete, McLachlan was a member of the 2011 International Paralympic Committee Athletics (IPC Athletics) World Championship team and was an OFSAA Championship medal winner during her high school years. McLachlan won silver medals for both 100 and 200 m. during last week's  Parapan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico. She plans to attend the Social Work program at the University of Windsor in 2012.