THUNDER BAY – The flame of the upcoming Pan Am Games is alive.
The torch relay for the 2015 Pan American Games, which will be held in Toronto in July, hit Thunder Bay on Sunday morning with stops at the Fort William First Nation, city hall, the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre and the Terry Fox Lookout.
The Thunder Bay area was the first stop for the flame outside of the host city after getting a brief preview of Toronto on Saturday, where it arrived after being lit in Mexico where the games were last held in 2011.
Former Fort William First Nation Chief Leonard Pelletier, 74, was the first torchbearer, taking the lit along the Mount McKay Scenic Lookout before passing it on to teenager Deven Boucher-Hilton.
“To be part of it is an honour,” Pelletier said. “As an elder and passing it on to people who will be taking over and the next generation, it will install something in him that he will never forget.”
Thunder Bay was the first stop for the flame outside of the host city after getting a brief preview of Toronto on Saturday.
Katherine Henderson, senior vice-president of marketing and revenue, said organizers made a strategic decision to really kick off the tour in the region.
“The flame is meant to unite people,” she said. “It’s going to go to a lot of places in Canada but uniting the north and the south is a very symbolic thing of the way our games are.”
A number of torchbearers were selected for the various stops and the road in between, such as decorated local athletes Curt Harnett and Andrea Cole.
The torch relay is a celebration of the city as much as the Pan Am Games.
“It’s a special day for Thunder Bay,” Henderson said. “It’s a wonderful community, a welcoming community. It has everything we want. It’s proud of its athletic heritage and proud of its cultural heritage.”
Harnett, a three-time Olympic medalist as well as a Pan Am gold medal winner who is also the Canadian chef de mission at these upcoming games, carried the torch into McGillivray Square and lit the ceremonial cauldron.
Cole, a medalist at both the Paralympics and Parapan Am Games, brought the torch up to the Terry Fox Lookout.
The Pan Am Games are held every four years in the year prior to the Summer Olympics, featuring athletes from 41 countries from North and South America.
There were 34 local torchbearers.
After the morning in Thunder Bay, the torch heads along the north shore of Lake Superior visiting Nipigon, Terrace Bay, Marathon, White River before ending Sunday in White River.
The torch relay has 3,000 torchbearers, who will be delivering the symbol of the passion of the games in communities across the country for 41 days leading up to the opening ceremonies.
