A young hockey player, a dance studio owner and a champion high school barrel racer are among the 35-plus Central Albertans who will be torchbearers for the 2019 Canada Winter Games in Red Deer.
And it doesn’t end there.
Although 130-plus people were named torchbearers for the MNP Torch Relay across Canada Tuesday, the ones who will be carrying the Games torch through Red Deer city limits won’t start to be publicly announced until January, said Lyn Radford, chair of the 2019 winter games board.
Being selected as a torchbearer is exciting because “right now its the ordinary people who are getting to be part of the Games,” said Radford at a press conference at the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame.
“The athletes have been working on getting selected for their teams, but these (torchbearers) are truly the community pillars from across the country that are going to get to be part of our” Games, she added.
In attendance were dozens of the torchbearers selected from 900 nominations. Radford congratulated these “outstanding leaders in youth, sport and community across our nation who are making an impact.”
Many of those chosen — including Reid Wilson of Lacombe, Heather Buelow of Blackfalds and Tegan Poitras of Ponoka — took turns posing for photos with the torch, which will ultimately be used to light up the Games cauldron and officially start the Winter Games on February 15.
“It’s a big honour for me” to be selected, said Reid. The young hockey and baseball player will be among six people carrying the torch through Lacombe.
Dancer’s Edge studio owner Buelow “can’t wait until January 29” when she and four others will be carrying the torch through Blackfalds.
And high school barrel racer Poitras feels “it’s a really big opportunity for me” to be among eight people to carry the torch through Ponoka.
Regional Chief of the Alberta Assembly of First Nations Marlene Poitras (no relation to Tegan) will be among the six Edmonton torchbearers. Poitras will be representing 47 First Nations communities in Alberta.
“This is a complete honour for me. I’m hoping it will inspire our youth to get involved in sports because, in my view, sports is a very good training ground for future success,” said Poitras, who played semi-professional basketball as a teenager and is still involved in a variety of sports.
The torch will be lit from the Centennial Flame in Ottawa on Oct. 4 and will travel through 50 Canadian communities, from Halifax to Victoria, before arriving in Red Deer in February.
For the complete released list of torchbearers’ names and profiles please visit canadagames.ca/2019/mnptorchrelay.
