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Pemberton looks at Olympic opportunities

The little town with the country and western theme won’t be left in the dust when it comes to maximizing Olympic opportunities.

The little town with the country and western theme won’t be left in the dust when it comes to maximizing Olympic opportunities.

"There’s a concern in the community that unless we become proactive we’re going to end up with all of the negative aspects of the Olympics and none of the positives," said Don Coggins, chair of the Pemberton Valley Community Olympic Task Force.

This concern was the impetus for Monday’s public meeting hosted by the task force.

Though the turnout was fairly small, the ideas were big.

One idea in particular which struck a chord with Pemberton Mayor Elinor Warner was ‘Pemberton on the Podium’, which would look at supporting young athletes in the community in realizing their goals of competing in the 2010 Olympics.

"The Olympics are going to be here in Whistler and if any one of our children gets close, whether it’s a member of a hockey team, ski team or whatever, wouldn’t it be wonderful?" said Warner.

"We could give every kid in Pemberton the dream that it’s possible."

She said there was also a suggestion of hosting a winter festival in Pemberton every year and in seven years time it would be an established event in town that Olympic visitors could participate in during the Games.

Maureen Douglas, community relations director for the 2010 Transition Team also attended the meeting but more as an interested citizen than in her capacity with the Games.

She said a number of ideas were bandied about at the Signal Hill Elementary School, like the chance for Pemberton to open its doors and take on a significant homestay role in the Games. Or the town could become an essential part of the volunteer component of 2010. Another idea was that perhaps Pemberton could adopt a sport or a team to help develop training facilities in Pemberton. It could be a sport like cross-country skiing where the local terrain lends itself to the sport and it could leave the town a lasting legacy.

"This just gives them a starting point to work from," said Douglas.

She said Pemberton is a unique position for these Games.

"They’re within the corridor of the Games," said Douglas in an earlier interview with Pique Newsmagazine .

"They will be actively involved.

"They definitely are so close to it that there’s opportunity there."

The chair of the meeting, Coggins, said there were some tremendous ideas in the community though only 25-30 people turned up.

"It’s not just community oriented," he added.

"It’s things that businesses can do as well."

Before Vancouver and Whistler were awarded the Games in July, Olympic Bid Corp. representatives travelled to virtually every community throughout B.C. to talk about Olympic opportunities. The meetings were called Community Opportunity Workshops. Douglas said they took on the unfortunate acronym of COWS.

"The intention was how do you start educating now to really help smaller communities leverage all the opportunities from the Olympics over the next seven years," Douglas said previously.

"What are the economic opportunities along the journey and what are the economic and maybe the celebration opportunities during the time of the Games?"

Past success stories include the log home company in 100 Mile House which won a contract to built two big lodges in Snow Basin for the Salt Lake City Games in 2002. Another man in the Gulf Islands became the official supplier of noisemakers for the Games. And there was the small knitting company in Nelson that made the knitted sweaters for the CBC commentators in Salt Lake. Their sales have increased by about 300 per cent.

Pemberton and other communities in B.C. could be poised to reap the same kinds of benefits with the 2010 Games.

Douglas also mentioned that money has been put aside in the organizing committee budget for "celebration sites." Communities will be able to apply for funding to co-ordinate a community celebration or maybe augment a regional community centre that would become the gathering point of the Games.

"(The province) will look at different applications for funding and award funding throughout the province specifically for the time of the Games (and) that will hopefully segue into a longer term legacy," she said.

Pemberton’s volunteer steering committee will take the ideas from the meeting and begin to form a plan for the Pemberton Valley. Coggins said they might hold more community meetings in the future for more ideas.

IOC announces Co-ordination Commission

The International Olympic Committee has announced the 11-member Co-ordination Commission that will help Vancouver organize the 2010 Games over the next seven years.

The chairman of the commission is René Fasel and the executive director is Gilbert Felli.

Gunilla Lindberg and HRH the Prince of Orange are representing the IOC. Ottavio Cinquanta and Gian-Franco Kasper are representing the International Sports Federations. Tsunekazu Takeda and José Luis Marco are the National Olympic Committee representatives. Fraser Bullock is representing the Past Organizing Committee, Rita van Driel the International Parlympic Committee and Pernilla Wiberg is the Athletes’ representative.

The Co-ordination Commission will be the link between all the IOC organizations and the OCOG. The first meeting is scheduled to take place in the spring of 2004.