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The youth of Lillooet will play key roles in the Olympic torch relay celebration on Saturday, Feb. 6.
Some lucky teens have been selected as torchbearers and will carry the Olympic flame through town.
The local organizing committee has asked Lillooet’s schools, sports clubs, and youth groups to each choose two representatives to participate in the ceremonies welcoming the Olympic flame to town.
The youths will form an “honour guard” for the community torchbearer as he/she carries the Olympic flame on the final steps to the stage to light the Olympic cauldron.
“We saw this as an opportunity to involve more kids in the celebration and we hope it will create very special lasting memories for them,” commented Coun. Carmen Pallot, chair of the committee organizing Lillooet’s Olympic torch relay celebration.
All three local schools are also involved in preparations for the event.
An elementary school choir consisting of students from Cayoosh and George Murray elementary schools will sing the national anthem at the celebration that starts the morning of Feb. 6 at the Old Mill Plaza.
The students, who will perform under the direction of Sandy McDonald, will sing O Canada in English and French.
Under the direction of Yvonne Eaglestone, the Lillooet secondary school choir has been busy rehearsing for its performance of There’s a Light/Cette flame.
There’s a Light/Cette flame is an original musical piece composed by Canadian choirmaster Gregory Charles. The piece is performed just after the arrival of the final torchbearer who lights the cauldron in each community.
Eaglestone said the students singing in LSS’s new choir will be augmented by staff members from the school, community members and perhaps students from other schools. The LSS choir will also be singing in English and French.
There’s a Light composer Gregory Charles said the theme of light inspired his composition. “Light represents the will to know, to understand the world and others. The flame, like a lighthouse, becomes a catalyst,” he said in a news release.
”This is what the world’s athletes inspire. It is also the promise that the world will be a better place if all men stand together. Light also implies that good triumphs over evil.”
