Kids sat on their parents’ shoulders and craned their necks as torchbearer Gary Gibson ran with the Olympic flame to the Edgeworth Centre in Camrose Friday afternoon and lit the cauldron onstage.
Thousands of people came out to see country musician Aaron Pritchett, the Augustana Men’s Choir and Blue Thistle perform at a lunchtime celebration, before the torch team packed up and continued its journey through the city.
Maria Big Snake waited with her parents, sisters, nieces and daughters to see her eldest, Meagan Big Snake, run with the flame. The 20-year-old from Siksika Nation has travelled with the torch as an aboriginal youth torch attendant since Toronto.
“My hands are shaking and I have so much energy and adrenalin,” she said.
Earlier in the day, torchbearer Ray Nielsen’s eyes grew wide and shiny as he turned around and looked at the hundreds of people lined up along the route in Stony Plain just before 7 a.m. Friday.
“It’s just too emotional to talk about,” the Bruderheim resident said. People snapped photos of the torch and kids posed with Nielsen as the crowd cheered “Go, Canada, Go!,” while shaking tambourines and waving flags.
“It’s unbelievable. I’m surprised at how many people are here. It’s amazing,” he said.
Clayton Gitzel lined up with his family and friends to see the torch at 5:30 a.m. The 12-year-old hoped to get a pair of free red Olympic mittens the town handed out to the first 70 people, but since people started filling the streets at 5 a.m., the group missed out.
“We weren’t here early enough,” Gitzel said.
The flame passed through Spruce Grove before it reached nearby Enoch Cree Nation at 8:03 a.m.
Torchbearer Alissa Hodgson brought the flame to the band office, where Chief Harry Sharphead welcomed the cheering crowd before Elder Douglas Ward blessed the flame in front of hundreds of people holding candles and wearing Enoch hockey jerseys.
The sound of drums and singing erupted as Hodgson touched the flame to waiting torchbearer Rick LeLacheur’s torch, and he took off with it.
David McDonald watched the blessing with his wife and daughter and said he was proud to see the Olympic flame in Enoch.
“It’s an event we probably won’t see again for a while,” McDonald said. “It’s something, especially for the community, to come together like this with so many people.”
Then, at 8:35 a.m., the flame reached Devon, where torchbearer Sherman Chan was waiting for his turn, unable to stand still.
“I couldn’t sleep, and it’s all I was thinking about this morning” the 29-year-old Edmontonian said. “I’m just totally overwhelmed.”
Stacy Link showed up to the relay in Devon with her family to celebrate the Olympics before they head to Vancouver in February to watch the games live, she said. “We’re really excited.”

Photograph by: Larry Wong, The Edmonton Journal

Link has tickets to see women’s and men’s curling, hockey, and women’s giant slalom skiing in Vancouver.
The flame was to continue through the Alberta communities of Wetaskiwin, Hobbema, Ponoka, Lacombe and Sylvan Lake before reaching a torch relay celebration Friday night in Red Deer.

Edmonton Journal
via www.montrealgazette.com