OSOYOOS TIMES-January 20, 2010

By Paul Everest - Osoyoos Times

A celebration of the Olympic flame’s arrival in Osoyoos will begin one day before the Torch winds its way down Anarchist Mountain.
The Sonora Community Centre is hosting a free mid-winter sock hop on Jan. 23 from 5 to 8 p.m. with music from the 1950s and 1960s being supplied by some of the entertainers scheduled to perform at a ceremony celebrating the Torch’s arrival in Osoyoos the next day.
The big show kicks off at 6 p.m. on Jan. 24 at a stage set up at Gyro Beach at the foot of Main Street.
Former Osoyoos mayor Tom Shields is hosting the two-hour show which begins with entertainment organized by the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC), including a performance of Canada’s Olympic anthem, There is a Light - Cette Flamme, by the Desert Airs, a local men’s chorus.
Shields is a part of the 7 Grand Show Band which will provide musical accompaniment to local vocalists performing during the show including Diane Ball, who will perform a country number called Darlin’, Rick Wood, who will perform Surely, Maureen Terill, who will perform a song called Hometown Boy which was written by a local resident, Miranda Froese, who will perform a song she recorded called At the End, and Kansas Hatherley, who will perform the song The Climb to herald the arrival of the Torch.
Performers from Dance Oasis will dance to the song Wonderful World and a band made up of students from School District 53 will perform Stand by Me before everyone joins in for a Canadian rendition of This Land is Your Land.
There will also be speeches by Mayor Stu Wells, Boundary-Similkameen MLA John Slater and other local leaders and the show will wrap up with a fireworks display by Osoyoos’s own Frank Zandvliet.
But the main event happens at just after 7 p.m.
According to a VANOC schedule, the Torch will reach the base of Anarchist Mountain at roughly 6:36 p.m. and will be handed off to relay participants including Ross Rebagliati, who won a gold medal in snowboarding at the 1998 Olympic Games, Chantal Gilbert of Osoyoos, whose mother carried the Torch on its way to the 1988 Olympic Games in Calgary, and finally Tony Batista, who will carry the Torch along the last stretch of Main Street and onto the stage at Gyro Park to light an Olympic cauldron at roughly 7:15 p.m.
Gerald Davis, the Town of Osoyoos’s recreation director, said the local committee organizing Osoyoos’s celebration of the Torch’s arrival have ordered 500 candles that will be distributed to the crowd in front of the stage to help light Batista’s way towards the cauldron.
He added that the Osoyoos Lions Club will be selling beef-on-a-bun prior to the show at 5 p.m.
The Town is also working to secure some tents that attendees can use for shelter before and during the show.
The forecast for Jan. 24 calls for a high of 3 C and a low of -10 C with partly cloudy skies.
Police have said that Park Place and the parking lots around Gyro Beach will be closed to vehicle traffic before and during the celebration.
Once the show wraps up, the Torch will head to the Spirit Ridge Vineyard and Resort where it will stay overnight.
The Osoyoos Indian Band is hosting a private after-show celebration at the resort from 8 to 10 p.m. where guests will enjoy wine, refreshments, a bonfire and a performance by hoop dancer Dallas Archand.
Many of the crew and media travelling with the Torch will be staying at the resort and a spokeswoman for Bellstar Resorts, which operates Spirit Ridge, said roughly 200 rooms were booked for the Torch’s stay in Osoyoos.
The Torch will then be hitting the road early on the morning of Jan. 25.
At 6:50 a.m., Osoyoos Indian Band elder Modesta Stelkia-Betterton will perform a traditional Okanagan prayer and smudging ceremony to bless the Torch relay and its crew before the Torch sets out from the Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre.
The first torchbearer of the day will be band Chief Clarence Louie, who said he is a big believer in the importance of sports in native and non-native communities alike.
“I hope having this Olympic Torch around will get the youth off the couch and away from those 500 channels.”
He added that he is honoured that the Torch is coming to the band’s territory.
He will be accompanied by six young band members running beside him and four band elders riding on horseback, along with a contingent of band drummers and singers.
Ye Qiaobo, a speed skater from China who won a silver medal at the 1992 Olympics and a bronze medal at the 1994 Olympics, and Andy van Ruyven, who competed for Canada in rowing events at the 1972 and 1976 Olympics, will also be carrying the Torch on its way out of town.
The Torch will be heading north and is scheduled to end up in Kelowna by the end of the day.
Police will be escorting the Torch when it enters and leaves Osoyoos but no road closures are scheduled on January 24 or 25.
“However commuters can expect some minor traffic delays as the flame travels from Osoyoos to Penticton,” said Cpl. Jason Bayda, a spokesman for the Osoyoos RCMP. “We ask the public to be cognizant of the runners and all traffic control directions to ensure the safety of all involved.”
The Town is still looking for volunteers to help out with Sunday’s celebration.
Anyone interested in volunteering can contact Sarah Gattinger at 250-495-6562.
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