Members of the North Bay & District Multicultural Centre help former Olympian Barb Olmstead and Mayor Victor Fedeli raise the flag Friday Afternoon.
An Olympic Flag is flying high at North Bay City Hall this afternoon that is because the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Committee has chosen North Bay to be one of the sites for the "torch relay" to pass through.
Mayor Victor Fedeli announced that the torch will arrive in the city Tuesday December 30th 2009, during a news conference at City Hall this afternoon.
The relay, proudly presented by Coca-Cola and RBC, at 35,000 kilometres long promises to be the longest relay in history and will connect Canadians in every province and territory.
Mayor Victor Fedeli's speech is below.
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Residents of North Bay, anxious to catch the Olympic Spirit, will have the opportunity to see the Olympic Flame in person on December 30, 2009 as it passes through on its way towards the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.
But more than that, North Bay has been selected as one of the Canadian cities to host a Community Celebration. That means the Torch Relay will stop here for a massive party, hosted by the Vancouver Olympic Committee. This is something that will have national coverage and will be a huge event. They will be setting up an outdoor stage for a gala evening of entertainment, topped off with the arrival of the Torch.
The Community Celebration is an opportunity for a limited number of communities to commemorate the Olympic Flame and the Olympic spirit in a different way and for a longer time than the moving torch relay provides. North Bay is able to host the Olympic Flame for the duration of the celebration and be recognized as ‘an Olympic community for the day’. We will celebrate the Olympic spirit for the entire day and use the arrival and presence of the Olympic Flame as a symbol for the celebration.
This celebration offers an opportunity to engage the entire community, and allow us to enrich the relay story by highlighting our diversity and regional culture. While the official segment provided by VANOC will create consistency around the arrival, protocol, and presence of the Olympic Flame, we will embrace the message of the Olympic Torch Relay and the Olympic Games while presenting our own unique flavour.
The Olympic Flame has long been a symbol of the Olympic Games. But it is also a symbol of peace and friendship, of inspiration and passion, and, above all things, it is a symbol of unity.
The Olympic Torch relay, presented by Coca-Cola and RBC, represents an extraordinary opportunity to unify not only our community, but all Canadians, generating tremendous pride in our nation, while truly celebrating the coming of the Games. I’d like to acknowledge Laurie Petz from the Royal Bank, and Ben Gagne from Coca-Cola, our Torch Relay Presenting Partners.
The Torch will be carried by thousands of Canadians, of all ages and all cultural backgrounds, reaching people in every corner of every community across the nation. We encourage all of you to get involved, and anyone who is interested in becoming a Torchbearer go to rbc.com/carrythetorch or iCoke.ca to apply.
Some of you will represent North Bay as a Torchbearer in the Relay. But all of us will be brought together by the power of the Flame.
North Bay’s participation in the 2010 Olympic Torch Relay will certainly stand out as a memory to last a lifetime.
