A large, excited crowd gathered at Prince George City Hall this morning (Monday), as Mayor Simon Yu declared this week as Special Olympics Week in the City.
“This is the moment we’ve been waiting for for quite some time,” Yu said.
“A lot of volunteering and a huge amount of work went into this already, and we have great sponsors, the City is just abuzz with excitement for this week.”
Yu said he’s incredibly excited and honoured that Special Olympics BC chose the City for the games.
“We are always a great host city,” Yu said.
“This is the Northern Capital, and this what we do, we are the host city, always has been, for North Central BC, to bring people together to create friendship, and to create lifetime memories.”
The excitement is being felt amongst the athletes.
“It’s amazing, all the new volunteers, awesome, so many amazing people, I’m so happy,” said Sam Russell, who will be competing in powerlifting during the games, with it being his first provincial games.
Russell said he’s most excited to meet the athletes coming to Prince George.
“New faces in the buses, back and forth, I am social so I’m pretty happy,” he said.
Local Coordinator of Special Olympics Prince George Peter Goudal said this week will bring memorable moments.
“We haven’t had a summer games here in Prince George before, we’ve had a couple of the winter ones,” he said.
“Our athletes have been training hard, it’s a four-year journey to get here for every athlete in the province. They’re looking forward to it, I’m looking forward to it, my son’s looking forward to it, lots of hype in the community everywhere I go.”
The first major event will be the Law Enforcement Torch Run, which gets underway at the RCMP Detachment at 10:30 Wednesday morning.
“We would love to have the community come out and just show their advanced support for these events by attending the Torch Run,” said Cpl. Jennifer Cooper of the Prince George RCMP.
At the end of the torch run, there will be a community BBQ held at the CN Centre.
The opening ceremonies will be held at the CN Centre Thursday evening, starting at 7:30.
A full schedule of events, as well as volunteer opportunities, can be found here.
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