I met Bob via twitter (he’s a big Canucks fan) and I went over to his house last night after he invited me over to see the torch that he got to carry in the as part of the relay just before the Olympics started in February. And just how did he get to carry the torch? This is his story…
Bob called for weeks to see if he could volunteer for the Olympics. He wanted to help, he didn’t have any inkling to carry the torch. He’s got a lots of experience with events and volunteers and just wanted to be involved at that level. He continued to call and call and a couple of days before the relay, they took him up on his offer and had him schlep stuff and get things ready for the torch relay. He did such a great job, they asked him to come back on Relay day. He schelpped and schlepped some more on Relay Day. And then he heard his name being called on a walkie talkie…over and over…but it wasn’t his walkie talkie, so he couldn’t really answer it. Besides, he was too busy carrying stuff around. Finally, he got to talk on the walkie talkie and one of the organizers asked him to come talk to him. Bob went to see him and was informed 1) a torch bearer didn’t show up and 2) if the torch bearer didn’t show up in 10 minutes, would Bob like to fill in?
Can you imagine? A no-show for the Torch Relay? It never occurred to me that would happen. And that’s how Bob got to be the torch bearer. But you know what? He’s a good egg (and too modest to talk about it) so I happen to think he was just the perfect person for the job. And so does his wife, Lori.
Bob had to change into his track suit, white toque and special torch mitts (they have grippy things inside!). You can see part of the “Torch Kit” below (I didn’t take photos of the tracksuit):
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