One day after surprising fans at the pinnacle of Canadian football in Vancouver, Prince Harry got down to ground level with a game of sitting volleyball with schoolchildren in the city.
The Duke of Sussex, who attended the Grey Cup on Sunday, is in British Columbia to promote the Invictus Games that he founded for wounded, injured and sick veterans and other service personnel about a decade ago, and which will be held in Vancouver and Whistler in February.
He helped Invictus Games organizers launch a lessons program for students from kindergarten to Grade 12 on Monday, making educational resources on the event’s history and purpose available online.
The prince interacted with elementary and high school students at Vancouver’s Seaforth Armoury, playing sitting volleyball, studying the poem Invictus by William Ernest Henley for which the games are named, and taking part in a drawing and colouring exercise.
Speaking later to the students, military service personnel and athletes, Prince Harry said his interactions with them “had a profound impact” on him, in relation to the school program’s potential to spread the games’ message.
“This is where Invictus starts to go even wider, outside of the Invictus community into schools in Canada and hopefully around the world as well,” he said.
“Seeing this program today in action, you can really feel the energy, the enthusiasm and the learning happening in this room. So there’s a lot of excitement.”
The Invictus Games will be held from Feb. 8 to 16, with competitors from 23 countries taking part.
It will be Canada’s second time hosting the event — after Toronto in 2017 — but it will be the first Invictus Games involving winter adaptive sports such as alpine skiing, Nordic skiing, skeleton and wheelchair curling.
Students at Monday’s event received tickets to the Games’ opening ceremony.
The prince urged them to spread the word about the event and its role as a platform for wounded service members’ achievements.
“For these individuals, for the challenges they have overcome, to be amongst team members again … wearing their flag on their chest or on their arm, coming out into a stadium full of tens of thousands of people cheering for them,” Prince Harry said. “You need to understand what that means to them, because that can be a life-altering moment.”
The event was attended by dignitaries including Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim and Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler CEO Scott Moore.
Sim told the students people of all ages should support the games and their message.
“Kids, I think you need to know that we get to live the lives that we do — we get to play in the playgrounds, we get to go to school — because of the sacrifices of so many people who put themselves in harm’s way so we can experience the freedoms that we have,” Sim said.
“I want you to think about them, and later on give them a big high-five and a big hug.”
Moore said after the event that the message of the Invictus Games had stronger reach with children and youth when Prince Harry spoke directly to them, making the royal’s appearance on Monday vital for the school program’s launch.
“No one carries this message better than the duke,” Moore said. “Part of the goal of the Invictus Games is to increase awareness for service and gratitude for service, so the school program that we launched today is a part of that.”
On Sunday, the prince made a surprise appearance at the Grey Cup game at BC Place Stadium, waving to the crowd and giving an interview before joining B.C. Lions owner Amar Doman on the field.