Canada Games Past Community Engagement Program
The City of Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador, host of the 1999 Canada Winter Games, earned the Canada Games Past Community Engagement Award for 2011.
Corner Brook showed tremendous civic pride and showed how the Canada Games Movement truly impacts a community. All past host communities showed tremendous excitement for their involvement in the Canada Games and all contributed to the build-up of the 2011 Canada Games in Halifax.
The ’99 Games in Corner Brook had the theme “Yes We Can.” When they received word that the Canada Games flag would be making a visit, they quickly took to the challenge and said “Yes We Can, Again!”
A Facebook page was created to help promote the flag’s arrival and Corner Brook welcomed the Canada Games Flag with not only a flag raising at City Hall, but held flag raisings in the communities of Deer Lake, Pasadena, Steady Brook and Stephenville, who all contributed to the ’99 Games. They also organized an Athlete Appreciation reception, attended by over 100 people and media with a special performance by Sherman Downey and the Ambiguous Case.
There were also radio trivia contests hosted by local station CFCB/VOCM and two videos produced highlighting the ’99 Games and the events with the Canada Games flag.
“The city of Corner Brook is very pleased to win the Past Community Engagement Award. It is a true sign of just what the Canada Games meant to our community in 1999 and still today,” says Corner Brook Mayor Neville Greeley. “I'm so proud that our citizens still have the spirit of ‘Yes We Can!’ It was a great sense of pride and community spirit that made it all happen.”
The official Canada Games flag visited each past Host Community of the Canada Games in the lead up to the Opening Ceremonies for the 2011 Canada Winter Games in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The flag began its journey in Whitehorse, Yukon, host of the 2007 Canada Winter Games on December 3, 2010 and worked its way East until it arrived in Halifax on February 10, 2011.
Honourable mentions through the Canada Games flag tour across Canada included:
- Whitehorse for their excellent video portraying the sites and activities the flag was involved while in Whitehorse
- Grande Prairie for the tremendous wine and cheese event with the flag, showing off memorabilia and memories of the 1995 Canada Winter Games
- Thunder Bay and the speech from Mayor Keith Hobbs reflecting on the success of the 1981 Canada Summer Games and the legacy it left in the City of Thunder Bay
- Lethbridge for organizing an event featuring many former and current municipal, provincial and federal dignitaries.
Highlights of the Canada Games Past Community Engagement’s cross Canada flag tour can be found on the Canada Games Facebook Page at facebook.com/CanadaGames.
