It was a busy weekend in the city with activities on Friday, Saturday and Sunday night that I took part in.
Starting things off on Friday was the Lethbridge Hurricanes fundraiser for the Canadian Cancer Society, "Pink in the Rink".
I shot still photos of the newest Hurricanes, Daniel Johnston and Jacob Berglund for the Hurricanes trading cards. The team donned a special pink trimmed uniform, pink skate laces and taped their sticks with pink tape. It's an important cause and the community appreciated the effort the team made to support it. Over $23,000 was raised over the course of the weekend, between an auction of the special jerseys and a team haircut.
Players, coaches and the front office all allowed their hair to be shorn so a substantial amount of money could be raised in this inaugural event.
Saturday was a production of a different sort. We were asked by the Allied Arts Council to participate in their Arts Stage II celebration of local arts in the community. The premise was that the on stage performance was taking place inside the confines of a television studio like in the days of the old variety TV series. Our TV crew was made up of George Gallant of Gallant Productions as our director and Mort Molyneux of K2 Communications, Fergus Raphael of Tangle Media and myself on camera. We actually produced a TV show of the performers in this years presentation but it remained as a closed circuit broadcast for the theatre audience. It was a lot of fun and we were glad to be a part of the evenings entertainment.
The weekend culminated in an event that the whole city was buzzing about, the 2010 Olympic Torch Relay. The torch made a historic entrance into the city across the High Level Bridge and then wound it's way through the city, culminating in the excitment of lighting the cauldron at Henderson Park. This is the second torch relay that I've followed and it involved more city residents this time around. I was also fortunate to cover the Calgary torch run and other Olympic events in 1988. My plan was to ride in "Media 1", the special vehicle for still and video cameramen that is crossing the country ahead of the flame to get the shots of each participant.
All was going well and I was at my pickup location getting shots of the next runner awaiting her turn at carrying the torch. The crowds were excited and everyone wanted to get a photo with the torch itself. Just as the relay rounded the corner I realized I had 10 minutes of life left on my battery and my spares were in my vehicle that my wife had just driven away in. I went from feeling great to absolute disappointment at what was about to slip through my hands. After an unsuccessful phone call to her I decided to run back and see if the van was still there. To my great relief it was. After grabbing my supply I now had to outrun the torch to the next pickup point. Each runner covers 300 meters and I had to do it with my camera in hand. I think I ran the fastest leg of the relay that day!
View from "Media 1". My camera position is on the left. (Rod Leland photo)
Fortunately everything worked out and I had a front row seat to an exciting and historic day in Lethbridge and Canadian history. Here is a link to the completed video.
