The 2015 Canada Winter Games delegation from Prince George leaves next week to attend the Canada Summer Games in Sherbrooke, Que., and the timing couldn't be better for the local organizing committee.
The words "Prince" and "George" together have been the royal subject of worldwide attention ever since Prince William and Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, revealed they've named their firstborn baby George. While Alyson Gourley-Cramer, the 2015 Games communications and community relations manager denied rumours the 2015 Winter Games mascot will be a diaper-clad baby wearing a crown, she still expects her committee to reap the benefits of the royal birth.
"Definitely when we go to Sherbrooke we'll be marketing Prince George, the city, not the baby," laughed Gourley-Cramer. "[Thursday's] announcement was thrilling. It's a really unique opportunity to be tied to royalty and for us at the 2015 Canada Winter Games, we know William and Kate are huge sports fans. We know the city did invite them to come to Prince George in 2015, and that would be a huge honour."
The 2015 group will set up an office for the two weeks of the Summer Games in Sherbrooke and as the host of the next Canada Games will be given a prominent role, including playing host to a northern B.C.-themed VIP cocktail party on Aug. 9. Staff at the office will be there as ambassadors for the city and to answer questions from the public and media about plans for the 2015 Winter Games.
"It's a great opportunity to practice our French, we've all been taking French lessons and it's been a bit difficult for some of us," said Gourley-Cramer.
2015 Games CEO Stuart Ballantyne and board chair Anthony Everitt will leave Tuesday for Sherbrooke and will remain there for the duration of the Games. Eight other members of the 2015 committee plan to be there for the second week of the Games, along with mayor Shari Green, city manager Beth James and a Tourism Prince George representative. Lisa Shaw-MacLaren, the 2015 Games manager of sport and venue preparation, is also part of the mission staff for Team B.C., which will give her firsthand perspectives from the athletes.
It will be the time forthe 2015 committee to make contact with officials from Athletics Canada, True Sport, the Canadian Association of Coaching and mission staff from the 10 provinces and three territories, who will be coming to Prince George in 2015.
Prince George will be the first Canada Games host city to reap the full benefits of the new transfer of knowledge program, a sharing of ideas, resources and information to ensure best practices get passed down to the next host city.
The Prince George group will job shadow the Sherbrooke committee and attend daily meetings to discuss protocol, accreditations, food and beverage services, security, marketing and communications, culture and ceremonies, medical services, venue preparation, sustainable development, finance, and language services. In their free time the committee members plan to attend the sporting and cultural events.
"I'm looking forward to getting on the ground and seeing how the Canada Games Council interacts with the host society and to see some of the creative solutions," said Ballantyne. "We look at a series of standards but there are always multiple ways to deliver those. We'll meet with sport VIPs and federal government VIPs to send our message about what's going on in Prince George to make them feel comfortable and make sure they want to come and visit us."
Sherbrooke, a city of 155,000, has two universities in close proximity -- Sherbrooke and Bishop's, which is a half-hour drive away in Lennoxville. Campus housing at both schools will be used by the athletes, a luxury Prince George won't have at UNBC because classes will be in session in February 2015.
Ballantyne, a national team member and two-time gold medalist for B.C. in swimming at the 1977 Canada Summer Games in St. John's, Nfld., was elated to learn five swimmers from Prince George will compete for B.C. in Sherbrooke. Prince George Barracudas Swim Club members Patricia Fortier, Haley Black, Danica Ludlow, Sterling King and Prince George Special Olympics swimmer David Dunn also made Team B.C. One other Prince George athlete, Gemma Hansen, will compete in canoe racing.
"We want to watch and track their performances while they're there," said Ballantyne. "It doesn't matter if the athletes are in a summer sport and we're hosting the Winter Games, these are athletes who are training and living right here in the region and we want to make sure people know who they are. They will be alumni [in 2015] and we want engage them in some pageantry and maybe some mentorship programs to encourage other kids to train at that level."
The Canada Games Council announced Friday it will webcast more than 800 hours of live coverage from Sherbrooke, covering the opening ceremonies , baseball, basketball, wrestling, swimming, soccer, softball, tennis, volleyball, athletics, fencing, diving, soccer, beach volleyball, and the closing ceremonies. Go to canadagames.ca for the webcast schedule.
