Friday, March 12, 2010

The Paralympic Opening Ceremonies - March 12, 2010 at BC Place

We were pretty excited about going to the Paralympic Opening Ceremonies, actually. I'd done some volunteering so when an e-mail showed up offering $20 tickets, I didn't think twice.
Like the Olympic Opening Ceremonies, our seats came with a participation pack which included one of four coloured ponchos, and pom poms with flame coloured LED light strands.
The pre-show rehearsal had several elements including a dance routine which, if successful, would have broken the world record to become the largest choreographed dance with 60,000 participants.
When seen from a distance, the ponchos recreated the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic logo complete with the sun image.
Sumi is the official mascot of the Paralympic games, and flew in to greet us.
The athletes entered the stadium to deafening fanfare. All the athletes, but of course, especially Canada.
We did our "Flash Mob" dance during this dance number. I'd have to say our section was pretty good, and from where we were it looked pretty impressive.
The speeches were okay, but got a bit long. We were a bit restless at that point. Where's the flame??
After a really moving tribute to both Rick Hanson and Terry Fox, the flame arrived in the stadium, carried by Terry Fox's parents. Very emotional.
Welcome Vancouver 2010 Paralympics!!!!

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