Legion Track Renewal

I just received the note below from our facilities maintenance department:

The Legion Track resurfacing project is well underway!  


The Facility Maintenance Department is landscaping the interior perimeter of the track to address drainage issues, repairing irrigation lines as needed, removing the old rubber crumb track surface and installing the new track surface.  We may have the opportunity to install the new long jump pits as well, but this depends heavily on our strict time frame.

Work will continue for approximately 5 – 6 weeks.  During this time, access to the track is limited to construction workers and City employees wearing safety vests.  There will be one Drillers football game as scheduled on July 7th .

Once the project is complete, vehicles will no longer be allowed on the track for any reason.  When crossing the track with mowers, light trucks, tractors etc.. rubber mats will be available to place across the track surface.  Any and all vehicles including City vehicles will need to stay on the gravel path on the south side of the track or travel in the grass areas on the exterior perimeter of the track. Please ensure that summer staff without email access are aware of these changes.

Feel free to forward this email to affected user groups throughout the City of Grande Prairie.  Thank you for your patience over the next few weeks. 

Wrapping Up The Arctic Winter Games

I stil haven't had time to fully "decompress" from the exciting and head-spinning week that was the Arctic Winter Games.

My quick impressions from the games:

• The city was busy! I mean realllllly busy - I'd almost swear that there was an audible hum from all the activity going on.
• Merchants at the mall must have noticed a spike in sales.
• Each venue had it's own personality. Cross-country skiing had a different vibe than Arctic Sports at the college.
• The things that are usually issues at the games (transportation, food and showers) seemed to get the least complaints.
• The kids had a great time.
• The army of volunteers that made the games happen deserve a rest!

That's all I can come up with right now- all in all it was a stellar week for our community!

If you'd like to see the action first hand check out the official AWG Flickr feed HERE. Volunteer Will Vaverk shot tons of pictures that captured just about everything from arrivals to departures and all the fun in between. (That's Will's work to the left.)

To see some other great shots stop by the Montrose Cultural Centre where you can check out the stunning images captured by the high school students that worked with professional photographers as part of the Photo Mentorship program.

The final medal count is on the AWG 2010 blog HERE.

Arctic Winter Games - Dene Sports, Hand Games

Check out this great video from CBC's Dan Robson on the Dene Hand Games down at ATCO place:



Check out Dan's full post on his AWG 2010 blog for CBC HERE.

In the mean time - get your butt down to ATCO Place in Muskoseepi Park and check out some of the unique sports of the Arctic Winter Games!

If you're looking for sport times and locations go HERE. There's a handy menu that allows you to sort the events by date, venue or sport. If you're a basketball fan you can find out when all the games are. If you've got a free day you can select just the date and see all events for that day.

2010 Arctic Winter Games - Opening Night

Just a quick post this morning....

Although the volunteers & staff have been working behind the scenes for more than three years, the 2010 Arctic Winter Games officially got under way last night with the opening ceremonies. It's going to be a week full of fun, sport, art and, most importantly getting to know new people!

Through the week I'll try to post games info when I can but they'll probably be short - it's going to be a busy time and there's only going to be so much time I can spend at the computer.

Today's quick notes:

- Last night's opening ceremonies were excellent! The crowd in attendance was treated to a really diverse line-up of acts that showcased the broad spectrum of cultures represented in the north - and the sight of over 2000 athletes and 260 officials parading in was especially moving.

Athletes Seated For Opening Ceremonies

- At this morning's Chef De Mission meeting (at 7am!) the Yamal representative had high praise for the ceremonies. They were so happy to hear their national anthem in their native language and surprised to hear a well known local song for their entrance music that it "brought tears" to their eyes!

- There was a hardy crowd gathered at ATCO Place in Muskoseepi Park to greet the Games torch as it came in to light the cauldron. ATCO were great hosts and kept everyone entertained even through the opening ceremonies were a little over time and delayed the torch's arrival.

Lighting The Cauldron At ATCO Place

Keep up to date with the latest 2010 Arctic Winter Games news via the links below...
General Info for the week:

Arctic Winter Games Sport Schedules can be found HERE

Arctic Winter Games Results Information can be found HERE

The Unique Sports of the Arctic Winter Games

The Arctic Winter Games are really a very, very, unique event. Unfortunately I think a lot of people who haven't been involved with these games before just don't have a good concept of just how different they really are.

Of course there are all the traditional winter sports that you might expect like Hockey, Curling and Alpine Skiing and Snowboarding, there's also the indoor sports like Basketball, Volleyball, and Table Tennis. Of course those are all exciting but it's the traditional Arctic, Dene and other northern events that are unlike anything in any other games.

So with that in mind I've been doing a little snooping on youtube and I've found clips from some of the sports that make these games different from anything you've seen before.

First up is the Two Foot High Kick where the competitor has to jump up and kick a small stuffed "seal" hanging down from a string. They have to touch the seal with both feet at the same time and maintain their balance when they land. I think the winning kick at the Yellowknife games was at about 8 foot, 4 inches!:



I'll post more clips as I find them.

City of Brooks Recognizes GPs Greatness

The Grande Prairie Storm had a great season, wining the AJHL and going on to the Doyle Cup.

The win in the AJHL finals was over the Brooks Bandits and it was enough to open the eyes of the Mayor Shields of Brooks to how "Great" Grande Prairie is. He's a good sport.

(click to enlarge)

Arctic Winter Games Bus Unveiled

This morning a city transit bus, wrapped to promote the up coming 2010 Arctic Winter Games was unveiled.


Representatives of Ernie's Sports, Bus Bench Promotions and SOS Graphics pose for the media.


AWG President Debbie Reid poses on the left side of the bus which features AWG sports such as table tennis, snowshoeing, the one foot high kick and some of the cultural delegations.


The right side of the bus also features a cultural performer at the front and working back from there; gymnastics, wrestling and figure skating.

I think the bus will be a great way to promote the games and raise awareness that they are coming up quickly! It's going to get put in to service soon and from the 22nd to the 25th of this month is will be our tour vehicle as we host the first Chef de Mission tour. The representatives from all the participating countries and jurisdictions will be in the city to check out how preparations are going and what our facilities are like. I think we'll wow them!

Off To Yellowknife - Arctic Winter Games

Tuesday morning I'll be heading off to Yellowknife as an observer for the Arctic Winter Games. Grande Prairie has been awarded the 2010 games so a number of locals are heading up to watch the games in operation. It's going to be invaluable learning for the volunteers in all the different sport and administration areas. I get to go because I am the city's representative on the games executive committee - also travelling from the City of GP will be Mayor Logan, his wife and Kirsten Maher (the City's Community Recreation Coordinator and point person for the games.)

If you're not familiar with the Arctic Winter Games check out the official website of the AWG International Committee. Aside from familiar sports like basketball, volleyball, curling, gymnastics and hockey the AWG also have some very unique competitions. Events like Dog Mushing and the Dene Games are the ones I'm really looking forward to seeing - after all who wouldn't want to check out events with names like "The Finger Pull" or "Snowsnake".

Keep an eye on the Yellowknife Games website to track the progress of our Team Alberta North athletes and as you get ready for 2010 you can join the Grande Prairie Arctic Winter Games facebook group.

I'll post pictures of the action in Yellowknife so check back through the week for updates, or sign up to receive a free email every time the site is updated.