The Seaside Centre in Sechelt was filled with excitement and anticipation Wednesday night as RBC hosted a gala reception for their 10 Sunshine Coast sponsored Torch Relay participants and invited guests.
Less than 24 hours before they would all take hold of the Olympic flame and run their chosen route along the Coast, torchbearers Cassandra Whelan (Madeira Park), Daphne Pay (Pender Harbour), Phillip Hamel (Sechelt), Douglas Kennedy (Sechelt), Mary Winn (Sechelt), Jeannette Lucas (SIGD), Caroline Depatie (Roberts Creek), Cameron Fyles (Gibsons), Gwendolyn Edwards-Hooley (Gibsons) and Roger Handling from Roberts Creek, who will be running with the torch today (Feb. 5) in Squamish, got a chance to meet, share their stories and celebrate before a moment that they all agreed would be an amazing, once in a lifetime experience.
Pay said she was running with the torch in honour of her beloved twin sister who has passed on and to celebrate their 70th birthday.
"I was sitting at home last year thinking how sad birthdays and Christmas time are without my beloved sister," Pay said. "I wanted to do something to honour her and do something that would be unique and out of my comfort zone. I saw the application for the torch relay and said, that's it, that's the thing I want to do. So I applied and was thrilled when I was accepted. It will be such an honour to welcome the Olympics to B.C. and run with the torch here tomorrow on the beautiful Sunshine Coast."
For Edwards-Hooley, this will be the second time she will carry the Olympic torch. She ran with the torch in 1988 before it arrived at the Calgary Winter Olympics.
She said her Olympic experience started with her father, Dr. Phil Edwards, one of Canada's most decorated and celebrated Canadian Olympic athletes.
As a middle distance runner, Edwards won five bronze medals for Canada, over three consecutive Summer Olympics (Amsterdam 1928, Los Angeles 1932 and Berlin 1936). He captained the Canadian Olympic team in the controversial '36 Games presided over by Hitler. As a Caribbean-Canadian (her paternal family emigrated from British Guyana), Edwards was proud to represent Canada as a doctor of tropical medicine.
"I am proud to run with the Olympic torch in 2010, not just to honour the memory of my father, but also to support a Canadian tradition of athletic excellence," she said. "My father is the reason why I ran in 1988 and is the reason why I'm running now."
Sechelt Mayor Darren Inkster said he is honoured to be the mayor of Sechelt and to help welcome the torch to the Sunshine Coast.
"All the government leaders have taken a constructive, mature approach to the event in saying, look, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to welcome the torch and the Olympics themselves," Inkster said. "The Olympics is about noble competition. These concerns about what things cost is how you put on events, but it's about competition and it's about nations coming together to compete peacefully and that unfortunately has been lost by some. But it shouldn't be, because I'm sure those same people recognize the co-operative aspects and the peaceful nation gathering that the Olympics represent."
Inkster gave great praise to District staff and to all the volunteers who have worked so hard the past few months to create Thursday's celebration.
Connie Jordison is the co-ordinator of council for the District and has been instrumental in organizing Sechelt's celebration.
She said she was more than a little excited about the torch relay.
"If I see lots of the people of Sechelt that will make my day - then I know it was a success," she said. "It's seeing lots of people out and lots of school kids out seeing the flame - that's what's going to make it for me. I'm 53 and I've never seen the Olympic flame before besides on television. I held the torch the other day and even though it wasn't lit, boy was it fun. I know this is going to be a world-class event for Sechelt and for the whole of the Sunshine Coast."
