Olympics from KW | Torch - December 27-28, 2009

[UrbanWaterloo]

2010 Olympics from KW
City of Kitchener Website (http://www.kitchener.ca/living_kitchener/olympic_torch.html)


Kitchener to host Olympic Torch Relay

Kitchener has been selected as a celebration community that will host the Olympic Torch Relay, en route to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, B.C.
The flame will arrive in Kitchener by 7 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 27, 2009; and depart early the next morning, Monday Dec. 28.

So far, activities that have been planned include:

Sunday, Dec. 27, 2009, Beginning at 1 pm,
The Children's Museum 10 King St. W., downtown Kitchener
* Olympic Games - make your very own Olympic torch and gold medal to take home

Olympic Torch 4 to 8 p.m.
Kitchener City Hall, 200 King St.W., downtown Kitchener

* Family entertainment featuring children’s singer Erick Traplin, Ty Schwende, Alisha Nauth and Alex Tintinalli , Alysha Brillinger, Grand Harmony Chorus and much more!
* Group dance performances
* Ontario Chinese Association, and the Davenport Dance Project
* Face-painting, crafts and interactive school displays
* Skating on Civic Square
* Appearances by local Olympic athletes
* Food and beverages by local groups
* Skating demos and minor hockey games. Minor hockey players -- be sure to wear your jerseys!

7 p.m.
The arrival of the Olympic Torch!

8 p.m.
* After-party at Bobby O’Brien’s pub, 125 King St.W.
* Music by Schwebbs
*Donations gratefully accepted for Olympic Dreams Athlete Program.

Monday, Dec.28, 2009, 6 a.m., Kitchener City Hall
* An Aboriginal sunrise celebration marking the departure of the Olympic Torch Relay team.
* Red-mitten giveaway from the Kitchener Rangers (while quantities last)

[UrbanWaterloo]

Looking forward to this. :) Hopefully the area will get some good national news coverage. I'll be downtown snapping photos which should be posted Sunday night or Monday, depending on how late the Bobby O'Brien's after-party goes to.

[Spokes]

Olympic torch run arrives Sunday in region
December 26, 2009 | The Record | Link (http://news.therecord.com/News/Local/article/649345)


The Olympic torch makes its way into Waterloo Region early Sunday afternoon. Here’s what you need to know to welcome it.

WEATHER:

Environment Canada forecasts a cloudy afternoon, with periods of snow and temperatures around minus 4C. Break out the long johns.

NEW HAMBURG AND NEW DUNDEE:

After a run through Shakespeare, the torch arrives in New Hamburg around 2:40 p.m. It then heads to New Dundee, arriving sometime between 3:15 and 3:30 p.m. Cambridge is the next stop. Wilmot Township is holding a free skate at the Wilmot Recreation Centre, 1291 Nafziger Rd., from 5:30 p.m.-7:15 p.m.

CAMBRIDGE:

At 3:44 p.m., torchbearers begin a 9.4-kilometre run into downtown Cambridge, via Cedar Street (Regional Rd. 97). There are events at Cambridge City Hall on Dickson Street, starting at 2:15 p.m.

A flame ceremony will be held at 4:15 p.m. The torch then heads up Hespeler Road to the Pinebush-Eagle intersection. People are encouraged to come out to cheer on the torchbearers.

WATERLOO:

The torch travels along University Avenue, from Lincoln Road to King Street, then heads to downtown Waterloo via King, arriving at 6:20 p.m. for a ceremony at Waterloo Public Square. The celebration at the square begins at 5:30 p.m.

KITCHENER – the official “celebration community”:

The torch heads to Kitchener City Hall along King Street (with a loop along Water, Duke and Frederick streets) for a scheduled arrival of 7 p.m. A community celebration gets underway hours earlier, at 3 p.m., in the city hall rotunda.

Pat Doherty, 81, is the last torchbearer of the day.

MONDAY:

An First Nations sunrise celebration marks the official departure of the torch from Kitchener. The ceremony begins at 6 a.m. in the city hall rotunda.

[jay]

I will be at the Uptown one if I'm back in town early enough, if not then at the Kitchener one. This should be a great event for both cores that should bring lots of people out!

[Spokes]

I will be at the Uptown one if I'm back in town early enough, if not then at the Kitchener one. This should be a great event for both cores that should bring lots of people out!

Its almost too bad its not done earlier in the day, or during the week, while more businesses are open. They would really benefit from all the additional foot traffic.

If you make it to the Uptown one, try to take some pictures and post them. I'd love to see what it's like up there, but will most likely be attending the Kitchener one.

[Spokes]

...Keep in mind that King street will be closed from 9am to midnight, and GRT is providing free bus service as of 2:00 this afternoon...
http://www.570news.com/news/local/article/11747--olympic-torch-arrives-in-the-region-today

[UrbanWaterloo]

Downtown is starting to fill! maybe 1000 at this time

[UrbanWaterloo]

Love the lcd at city hall!

[Spokes]

Love the lcd at city hall!

Was that an LCD next to the stage? I assumed with that size it was a projection. Wow!

[UrbanWaterloo]

Yup (think of Dundas square in Toronto for how big they can get), i heard it's part of the travelling show put on by coke and rbc. I do have a few pictures from today, although they're not great quality (bought a new camera and still figuring out the settings), and i just took pre-flame stuff. I'll post them later tonight though.

[Spokes]

Olympic torch runs through Waterloo Region
December 27, 2009 | Brent Davis and Luisa D’Amato | The Record | Link (http://news.therecord.com/News/article/649370)


http://media.therecord.topscms.com/images/9f/8c/3d54ed974e6dbeaf6237e545a209.jpeg

WATERLOO REGION – Ushered in by the cheers and well-wishes of thousands in front of Kitchener City Hall, Pat Doherty held the Olympic torch aloft as he approached the stage.

On foot, and virtually unassisted. And looking the picture of health.

This, remember, is the man many feared would never get the chance to be the city’s final torchbearer, as the cross-Canada relay rolled into Waterloo Region on Sunday.

A near-fatal heart attack sidelined the 81-year-old, known to many for a lifetime as a youth hockey volunteer and ambassador, just over a month ago.

But this was an appointment Doherty was destined to keep.

And so – after touching torches with RIM co-chair Jim Balsillie at King and Ontario streets – Doherty hopped aboard a golf cart and headed towards the stage.

At King and Gaukel streets, he hopped off, leaving the golf cart – and, at least for one night – memories of that brush with death behind.

“I’m still moving, I’m still standing, and I feel a lot better than I did,” Doherty told the crowd after lighting the white Olympic cauldron on stage.

The torch was greeted with cheering crowds, excited screams and a sense of reverence nearly everywhere it went across the region Sunday.

“I smell the fire!” shouted two-year-old Sonya Nowack as she watched the flaming torch cross the bridge in downtown Galt and proceed toward Cambridge City Hall.

Sonya was being held in her mother’s arms. Her dad and five brothers and sisters were all close by. They had travelled to Cambridge from Lynden, which is part of Hamilton.

“We brought everybody out, just to experience part of Canada’s pride,” said Sonya’s mother, Teresa.

After the torch passed by, the crowd walked over to city hall, where there were crafts, activities and a trampoline show.

Sunday was Waterloo Region’s day to celebrate the torch run as it makes its way to Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics starting February 12.

The torch went through New Hamburg, New Dundee, Cambridge, Waterloo and Kitchener.

Holding banners, banging drums and chanting “No Olympics on stolen Native land,” a large group of protesters converged on the celebration in Kitchener after gathering in Victoria Park.

“The (International Olympic Committee and Vancouver organizers) are trying to use the Olympics as a way of white-washing the colonial image of Canada,” said Mark Corbiere of Kitchener, a member of the Olympics Resistance Network Ontario and himself an aboriginal.

“The issues of Native poverty haven’t been dealt with.”

Protest organizers pledged to keep their demonstration peaceful. Waterloo Regional Police, who kept a close eye on the 200-strong group as they made their way through downtown streets, said no arrests were made.

Marilyn Ivanovick, 68, of Cambridge had a special reason to be at the Cambridge celebration.

Monday she will carry the torch for 300 to 400 metres as it passes through Walkerton.

“I’ve been running at the Y and doing classes” to get ready for the big moment, she said.

Ivanovick, who runs a business with her husband and also has volunteered in local sports events for years, applied to be a torch-bearer last winter.

“I just think it’s exciting,” she said.

She’s planning to get up early and go to Walkerton in plenty of time Monday.

“I want to case out the place, so I’ll know if it’s uphill or not!” she joked.

She doesn’t know how it will feel to hold that torch, but Brad Baker does.

Baker, also of Cambridge, carried the torch in Aurora, Ont., in mid-December.

“You can’t describe it,” he said of the feeling of carrying the torch.

Earlier in the day, the torch was greeted with cheering crowds in New Hamburg and New Dundee before it got to Cambridge.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said 11-year-old Anna Clifford, who could feel her heart beating faster as the flame approached.

Anna and her 13 teammates on the Wilmot Wolverines peewee C girls hockey team banged their sticks on the ground and gave their team cheer to welcome the torch.

“Our team is what? WILMOT!” they shouted, wearing their yellow-and-blue uniforms.

After the torch, held by McMaster University student Mike Hrycak, went out of sight, the girls said they will pay special attention to the national Olympic women’s hockey team.

Women playing hockey “shows girls can do anything the boys can do,” said Brookelynn Gerber, 11, of New Hamburg.

Hockey mom Gail Côté, whose house is right on the parade route in New Dundee, had invited the team to watch the torch passing from her front yard. Her daughter, Victoria, is a team member.

“It’s a great way to show the world how proud you are to be a Canadian and support our athletes,” said Gail.

On Monday, a First Nations sunrise celebration marks the official departure of the torch from Kitchener. The ceremony begins at 6 a.m. in the city hall rotunda.

The torch then heads to Guelph.


Aboriginal drums give sendoff to Olympic torch
December 28, 2009 | Luisa D’Amato | The Record | Link (http://news.therecord.com/News/Local/article/649420)


http://media.therecord.topscms.com/images/ba/a2/97af08ca4406aac77cacb8fe2b99.jpeg

KITCHENER – With the sound of aboriginal drumming in the air, and a whiff of burning herbs and tobacco, the Olympic torch left town before sunrise Monday morning.

A crowd of onlookers packed the rotunda of Kitchener City Hall at 6 a.m. to witness the departure of the torch. It goes to Guelph, then Mount Forest, Hanover, Kincardine and other communities on its way to Owen Sound.

On Sunday, torchbearers carried the torch through New Hamburg, New Dundee, Cambridge and Waterloo before bringing it to its final stop of the day, a celebration in downtown Kitchener.

The K-Town Singers, a group of aboriginal performers in feather headdresses and moccasins, led the proceedings Monday morning with drumming, chanting, and an outdoor smudging ceremony, in which sweetgrass, sage, tobacco and cedar were burned.

The smoke was wafted over the torch to protect it on its journey, “safe and sound, protected from negative feelings,” said Perry Stevens of Kitchener, lead singer of the group..

“Each morning, most aboriginal people celebrate a new morning as a gift of another day,” said Stevens, lead singer of the group.

One of the group’s younger performers, Mick Ross, 15, got up at 4:45 a.m. to be in the ceremony.

“I feel tired, but it feels good to perform,” said Ross, a student at Cameron Heights Collegiate Institute in Kitchener.

The crowd was welcomed by an exuberant Kitchener Mayor Carl Zehr, who congratulated the hundreds of volunteers for making the event such a success.

“The spirit of the Olympics, for youth in particular, is coming through loud and clear,” Zehr said.

Among those who watched the celebration were a husband and wife in matching white jogging suits, the official uniform of Olympic torch bearers.

Mary Beth Reynolds and Nathan Majury of Kitchener were both chosen as torch bearers, and one was to pass the flame to another at Weber Street and Victoria Street today.

Reynolds, a teacher at Northlake Woods Public School in Waterloo, was looking out for some of her students, who wanted to run beside her.

Both said they were excited beyond words.

“I’m on top of the world right now!” said Majury.

After the torch went on its way to Guelph with its usual punctuality, the aboriginal performers invited the remaining onlookers to hold hands with them, form a big circle and dance one last time.

Asked about the protesters who described the Olympics as being held on “stolen” land in a demonstration last night, Stevens said he thinks the Olympics will benefit the aboriginal communities in the Vancouver area.

“Most of the protesters are non-Aboriginal, and I think they should know the truth behind it,” he said.

The Olympic torch is something that brings everyone together, he said.

[Spokes]

Awesome turnout last night downtown!! I haven't seen it packed like that in a while.

For those that weren't there, there was a stage at King and College facing Frederick. It was elbow-to-elbow from the stage through city hall all the way back to King and Ontario, well into the next block.

[Spokes]

Olympic torch gets enthusiastic reception
Dec 30, 2009 | Charlotte Prong Parkhill | Waterloo Chronicle | Link (http://www.waterloochronicle.ca/news/article/198668)


There was pandemonium in the public square Sunday night as hordes of people turned out to see the Olympic flame make its way down King Street.

The torch relay made a brief stop at the public square in sub-zero temperatures, but that didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the estimated crowd of 1,500 people. Many strapped on their skates for a turn around the rink, while hundreds lined up for the opportunity of a photo holding an unlit torch.

Singer and Waterloo native Shaun Sutter said it was “an absolute honour” to be chosen as the musical guest. It was the largest crowd he’s every played for, and he entertained them for almost an hour, fingers on the guitar strings turning red and frozen as he sang many Canadian favourites and gave the crowd updates on the flame’s progress.

“I can see the cops and the lights coming down the street,” he shouted. “That means the flame is here!”

More people lined the sidewalks, watching local torchbearers run past, flame held high. Every floor of the parkade was lined with people who had climbed up for a bird’s eye view of the festivities.

“This is what we do in Waterloo — we celebrate each other, and we celebrate our heroes,” said mayor Brenda Halloran.

“This might be a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see the torch come through our community. I think it will create memories that we’ll share with our children and grandchildren.”

MP Peter Braid introduced local hero Janice Newton, chosen to carry the torch as an inspiration to others. Newton took up running at the age of 40, and now competes regularly in marathons, raising money for the Arthritis Society of Canada.

During a rousing rendition of Oh Canada, Linda Mantia ran the gauntlet along King Street and into the square, where she lit Newton’s torch. The two women stopped for a photo op as hundreds of camera flashes danced across the crowd.

Newton then continued down King Street as the relay made its way to a community celebration in Kitchener, where RIM CEO Jim Balsillie handed it off to Pat Doherty for the lighting of the community cauldron.

Day 59 of the Olympic torch relay started out in the early afternoon with a community celebration in Stratford, where CBC anchor Peter Mansbridge hefted the flame for 300 metres. It hit Shakespeare, Tavistock, New Hamburg and Cambridge before arriving in Waterloo just before 6 p. m.

City of Waterloo cultural manager Betty Anne Keller could not have been more thrilled with the success of the event, which she attributed to the legions of volunteers.

“The square is our new cultural facility and it is working fantastically,” she said. “I think this is fabulous — I’m over the moon.”

[Scott Porter]

The only thing that cities have to do is supply the man-power to help set up the road show and supply power needs for the stage and all the other activities that are set up. Coke and RBC are an awesome sponsor of this event!

[Scott Porter]

1 The Torch relay logo used along the route!

[Spokes]

The only thing that cities have to do is supply the man-power to help set up the road show and supply power needs for the stage and all the other activities that are set up. Coke and RBC are an awesome sponsor of this event!

So if that's the case, why on earth was the new years celebrations scrapped so the money could go to this?
The cities must bear some more of the financial burden.

[UrbanWaterloo]

Actually this is a better thread than the other I just started.

If you're out at a sports bar today, post pictures of a packed house cheering on Team Canada in Hockey! LET'S SEE 14 GOLDS!

Not sure where I'll be yet, either Bobby O'Brien's or McMullen's, or... ? If you're on mobile and the place you're at is good, let us know.

[UrbanWaterloo]

Mcmullen was full, at the huether which is busy itself. 2-1 for Canada at the moment! woooooooo

[UrbanWaterloo]

mob!

[Urbanomicon]

Anyone got some pictures of the celebrations in downtown Kitchener/Waterloo?

[Duke-of-Waterloo]

King and Bridgeport in Waterloo was where it was at around here! I've never seen anything like it. What an amazing time to be Canadian. :)

[RangersFan]

I think the Olympics and espically they gold medal win yesturday have done wonders for the moral of this country, everyone seems so happy with the success of our athletes. It is awesome to see those who do not normally watch sports become so invloved with the games, it gets everyone talking, and everyone seems connected somehow, Vancouver 2010 was amazing. Winning the men's gold medal hockey game was pure magic, I will remember this for the rest of my life.

[UrbanWaterloo]

Give me a chance to sober up, but I have pics and videos of last night. Wild time in Uptown Waterloo, with King & Princess being the epicentre. We shut down the street!!! Traffic was diverted down Regina. February 28, 2010.

SHOW ME YOUR BOOBIES!!! (lmao)
http://i576.photobucket.com/albums/ss203/UrbanWaterloo/Sports%20and%20Recreation/SAM_0579.jpg

[Spokes]

Wow definitely missed something good uptown!

I think these Olympic games were amazing. They started off slow, but the way the country stayed behind the athletes was amazing. And although we dont end up having the most total medals, 14 golds is amazing!! Proud to be Canadian. GO CANADA GO!!!

[Shawn]

Anyone else notice the "www.wonderfulwaterloo.com" stickers strategically placed in the photos? Hmmm.... I wonder how they got there??

[UrbanWaterloo]

Those are the WW Girls. Come on if Bud can have them so can we!

Here's how things started off (got busier fairly fast) and there's more to come this afternoon as I shake off my headache.

February 28, 2010 6:22 PM
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[Urbanomicon]

That's awesome! There is nothing like hockey to bring this country together.

Farewell Vancounver 2010. You will be missed.

[UrbanWaterloo]

February 28, 2010; 6:25 PM & 6:28 PM

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[UrbanWaterloo]

February 28, 2010; 6:35 PM & 6:38 PM

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[UrbanWaterloo]

O CANADA!
February 28, 2010; 6:44 PM

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[UrbanWaterloo]

February 28, 2010; 6:56 PM & 7:01 PM

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[UrbanWaterloo]

Proud To Be Canadian!
February 28, 2010; 7:02 PM & 7:11 PM

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[UrbanWaterloo]

February 28, 2010; 7:12 PM & 7:20 PM

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[Shawn]

These are great vids Urban! I was there without my camera and I'm glad you were able to capture these! It will be an experience I won't soon forget! I think my favourite one was the O CANADA video. Even drunk and out of tune it sounded amazing! Glad to see patriotism is "in" for 2010.