PENTICTON – The text books and note pads were put away in favour of bows and arrows at a Penticton school Wednesday.
The students at West Bench Elementary were learning archery, and participating in a pep rally, as a means to building excitement about the upcoming BC Winter Games in the city.
Archery is one of the competition sports.
“What we try to do is match the sport to what athletes are staying at the school. So at Carmi school, where all the ringette athletes will be sleeping, those kids will get to try ringette,” says games Community Development Chairperson Jenny Mitchell.
Two of the game’s 36 youth ambassadors organized Wednesday’s rally, which along with the archery, had the students trying to guess which sporting events will take place at the games.
“I wanted to be a youth ambassador because I love making kids happy and interested in sports,” says grade 11 student Jamie Lezard. “Playing sports is really health and it’s a stress reliever.”
Grade 10 student Jayden Landry is also enthusiastic to be an ambassador. “My job is to help out the athletes during the games and to help everybody in Penticton get pumped for the games,” says Landry.
About 2100 athletes are expected to participate and almost that many volunteers are needed to stage the event.
Organizers say they’re still in need of more volunteers.
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