Metro burns with Olympic pride
Published Tuesday November 24th, 2009
Moncton hosts biggest celebration so far during Torch Relay
*You can access the Times & Transcript Olympic torch photo gallery by clicking here.
Organizers from the Vancouver Olympic Committee told a Moncton audience last night it was the largest they had seen to date on the Olympic Flame's 106-day journey around Canada, and the crowd at the brand new Stade Moncton 2010 Stadium on the Université de Moncton campus was estimated to have peaked at 12,000 people.
A proviso has to be added to that, however. School night that it was, much of the crowd, many of them families with young children, arrived late and left early. By the time most of the evening's entertainment had given way to speeches from Moncton Mayor George LeBlanc, Moncton East MLA Chris Collins, and Fundy-Royal MP Rob Moore, the crowd probably wasn't more than a 10th of its peak size.
That meant lots of people missed the dazzling fireworks display that ended the night. However, a burst of red and white pyrotechnics earlier in the evening had added some colour and extra excitement to the singing of O Canada. The national anthem was sung by a community choir under the direction of Nadine Hebert, and another 12,000 strong community choir under the direction of nothing but the patriotism the Olympic Flame inspires.
At the height of the celebration, the sea of people filled the entirety of the stadium's grounds, and spirits were as buoyant as the giant white protective covering over the track and field that all 12,000 of them were standing on. Picture the wolrd's biggest Bounce Sheet and you'll pretty much have the idea.
And though many engaged in that classic Moncton "let's leave at the 10-minute mark of the third and beat the traffic" tradition, when the stadium was filled, there was no denying the magic in the air. The percussive high-energy performances of VANOC's performers, with their drums and Cirque-du-Soleil style acrobats, really got the crowd going.
Artist Fritz Branschat's frenzy of paint splashes, which seemed to have no rhyme or reason but in the end yielded a portrait of a woman carrying the Olympic Flame, was also a hit.
Fiddler Dominique Dupuis and her band had 12,000 sets of toes tapping and the Jeunes Chanteurs D'Acadie sounded marvellous even in the open-air stadium. A great reminder of how the celebrations are about more than just cheering on the torch bearers, when one of the choir's members, young Manon Melanson, appeared on the big screen, a whole contingent down near the front started jumping up and down, Manon's mom Ginette and dad Mario, her little brother Dominic, plus a whole lot of cousins, aunts and uncles, and even a few strangers who picked up on the Melanson family's energy.
The star of the show, though, was of course the flame itself.
Asked what he was feeling when he saw thousands of people on hand to greet him as he carried the torch into the stadium to light the Olympic cauldron, Special Olympian Chris Briggs was at a bit of a loss for words, saying only "wow!" Asked what message he had for the crowd, especially the children among them, Briggs said "follow your dreams."
The event left behind several gifts for the community. Fritz Branschat's painting was presented to the City of Moncton as a gift to its citizens, and RBC employees made a $60,000 donation to the United Way of Moncton and Southeastern New Brunswick to mark the historic occasion. And accepting one of the 12,000 torches Bombardier made for the relay on behalf of the citizens of Moncton was Mayor George LeBlanc, who promptly kissed it.
"Go Moncton! Go New Brunswick! Go Canada!" he cried to the applause of an enthusiastic crowd at Moncton's newest community gathering place.
The Stadium was getting rave reviews from people, even though it's not yet completed. Indeed, even through all the celebrating, workers were hard at it up on the west side of the stadium, racing against the coming of winter. Only once were they seen pausing in their work, just to watch a few minutes of the fireworks at the end of the night.
Among those impressed with the new facility as much as the evening's entertainment was Dieppe's Mike Gallant
"It's really a great thing for Moncton," Gallant said. Not that he didn't think the entertainment wasn't great too. In fact, he attended the community celebration in Shediac earlier in the day as well.
The party at the stadium wouldn't have happened, of course, if the Olympic Flame hadn't made its way into Metro Moncton an hour earlier. The first torchbearer in Dieppe was Moncton's Albert Burke. The torch made a brief stop in front of Dieppe City Hall where a crowd of about 150, including Mayor Jean LeBlanc and a group of schoolchildren from Dieppe schools, were on hand to greet them. Mayor LeBlanc made brief remarks, led the crowd in three cheers, and then the torch caravan was off again through heavy evening traffic toward Moncton, escorted by Codiac Regional RCMP driving cars, motorcycles and bicycles.
Among those lucky enough to carry the torch through Moncton were Ed's Sub founder Gilles Ratté, Olympic gold medallist Russ Howard, and Moncton Wildcats general manager Bill Schurman. Schurman enjoyed a very special cheering section as he crossed the bridge over Wheeler Boulevard near the J. Louis Levesque Arena -- the entire Moncton Wildcats squad.
Also carrying the flame through Moncton was Riverview's Norma Reid, who was diagnosed with lupus in 2001, but has taken that life altering experience and spun her own Olympic Gold, reminding the thousands of her fellow Canadians who suffer from the chronic disease just what is possible.
The Olympic cauldron was extinguished at the Stade Moncton 2010 Stadium last night as the festivities wrapped up, but not before a bit of it was transferred to a classic miners' lamp for safekeeping until this morning. A few minutes after 7 a.m., the next torch relay will begin at Moncton's city hall, before the flame travels by human power through Riverview, and a number of Albert County communities, and by vehicle convoy along the highway in between relay locations.
Disabled
More CE Network Sites & Partners:
Comments (4)
All comments are subject to the site Terms of Use. For a full commenting tutorial click here.
Our editorial team relies on filtering technology and our visitor community to identify inappropriate comments. In the event that a site user has submitted offensive content that has evaded our filter, please select the option to Flag As Inappropriate presented within the comment. Thank you for helping to keep this site clean.
In larger cities people see the Olympics for what they are - an advertising opportunity for big business, & a chance for the elite to compete for $$$ from various sponsorship opportunities. How many of the athletes are underpriviledged Certainly not many average everyday people involved to be sure.
But.wow - we got "gifts" -ie - RBC employees made a $60,000 donation...(maybe that explains the sudden increase in service fees)