Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Paint The Town Red

2 days until the Games!

As the torch winds down its 106 days of crossing our country, it will pass through the city of Port Coquitlam, BC. Along the way, it has been welcomed by jubilant crowds, singing and dancing, faces painted and hands warmed by bright red mittens, and over the past couple of weeks, a group of Port Coquitlam students have been working, paintbrushes in hand, to make sure that it is equally well received in our city.

As part of the Paint The Town Red program, a group of Riverside Secondary students took part in decorating shopfronts in Downtown PoCo with Canadian themed symbols. I had the chance to speak to Grade 12 student Brianne Higo about her experience. Here's what she had to say.

1. What is Paint The Town Red? How did you personally contribute to it?
Paint the Town Red is an eventful way to involve the community in welcoming the Torch Relay into the city of Port Coquitlam. This event involves painting on the outside of businesses along the street on which the torch relay takes place. I personally contributed to Paint the Town Red by volunteering to paint designs on the windows in downtown Port Coquitlam. I volunteered twice in 3 hour intervals and went all around to help make the town look more festive.

2. What motivated you to be part of Paint The Town Red?
When I heard about Paint the Town Red, I thought that it sounded like an amazing opportunity. It is a once in a lifetime thing happening in our city, and I felt volunteering could make me more involved. I thought about how if everyone joined in, how proud we would be to have the torch pass through our town.

3. What were your overall impressions of the experience? How will you remember it?
I thought that the experiance was amazing. Not to mention being recognized by the papers! When painting the windows people would come up and tell us how good it looked, and how it was such a great idea. Everyone understood the meaning, and complimented us on our job. I will remember this experiance as a great contribution to the community. And when the torch comes on February the 11th, I will be able to watch the torch be passed through the town, knowing that I helped contribute to this great event.


Photo from The Now Newspaper. Brianne is farthest to the left.

4 comments:

  1. Qù est-ce que tu jouer au sport préfère?

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  2. Je joue au soccer, mais j'aime regarder le bastketball. Et toi?

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  3. This is really cool! I noticed some painted things this morning. :]

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  4. That's great, M. Rempel! What was the atmosphere like when the torch came through the Tri-Cities? I would have loved to watch, but I was downtown for an event.

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