There were only smiles at Driving Force’s northeast Calgary location Monday as three members of the Jamaican bobsled team arrived to pick up a new 15-passenger van.
The rental company is lending it to the team for free, after their vehicle broke down on a Calgary road on the weekend.
READ MORE: Kind Calgarian drives a dozen Jamaican Olympic bobsledders to race after van breaks down
“Everybody is excited about it,” Driving Force’s Craig Strachan said.
The company is even throwing in money for gas.
“I think what it comes down to is just doing the right thing and being there for them.”
The team from the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary – made famous by the Walt Disney movie Cool Runnings – will next head to Whistler, B.C. early Tuesday to compete.
After that, they’ll travel to Utah for another competition before returning the van to Calgary in December.
On Saturday, their van broke down on the side of a Calgary road, while the team was en route to Canada Olympic Park.
They made it there thanks to the help of a Good Samaritan.
Since then, the team has received various offers of additional support.
Team member Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian says they’re grateful for the help.
“We couldn’t have dreamed for something like this,” Fenlator-Victorian told Global News.
The irony is not lost on the team that this all happened in Calgary, as they look ahead to the goal of the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.
“It will be the 30th anniversary of the ‘Cool Runnings’ original team,” she said.
“That’s one of our movements – is to really bring a full team to those Olympics.”
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