Last night I read an article in Northern Life about a young 24-year old lady from Valley East by the name of Candice Kirkbride. She was the recipient of one of the 2010 Community Builders Awards of Excellence for the Young Leader category. As I read the article memories of a horrible night back in March of 2001 came to mind. Candice was among a group of teenagers who were walking home late one night from a house party along a dark street in Hanmer when the group was struck by a drunk driver. Candice was only 15 at the time. She ended up surviving the accident but suffered severe injuries, had a stroke and remained in a coma for two weeks. Her boyfriend, Andrew Chaput, died that night.

Candice suffered a severe brain injury which has left her with no memory of that night, significant short term memory difficulties to this day, is blind in one eye and has some paralysis as she continues her life-long rebuilding process. She went back to complete her high school diploma at Confederation Secondary School. 
 

About four years after the accident, Candice met face-to-face with the young driver who hit her that night and she forgave him. She claims that the act of forgiving him for what he had done to her and her boyfriend turned her life around and allowed her to be happy again. What Candice did reminded me so much about a story that I had read a long time ago by a man named Strickland Gillilan. Let me share the story with you now. 

THE DARK CANDLE. 

A man had a little daughter. She was an only and much-beloved child. He lived for her. She was his whole life. One day while she was at school, a deranged man broke into the building and began shooting wildly. He then turned the gun on himself and took his own life. When the casualties were examined, the man’s little daughter was among the dead. The father was totally irreconcilable. He became a bitter recluse, shutting himself away from his many friends and refusing every activity that might restore his poise and bring him back to his normal self. He hated the world and everything about it. It was not fair that his innocent daughter, who never hurt anyone, was a victim of this senseless act. Why did it have to happen to her? What could he have done to prevent it? Who was to blame? How could he ever get even with the man who shot his daughter?

Candice's story reminds us that we will never be able to understand why tragic events occur in our life. Nevertheless, we must move on and continue our lives in a positive manner. We must not let our lives be governed by hatred and fear. It is important for the loved ones who were lost or hurt in any tragedy that we not lose our own lives as a result of their death. What is done is done and cannot be changed.

Have a good week!

   There has been much said and written recently about how the Olympic Games has rejuvenated our national pride and raised our normally refined patriotism in this country to a euphoric level the likes of which few can recall being equaled in the past. There were some amazing achievements realized by all of our athletes, and there were some disappointments.  As a country, "Team Canada" broke the all-time record for the most gold medals ever won by any nation at an winter Olympics. This means that our national anthem was sung after more events than any other nation in the world, and after all, that is what the Olympics is all about. It is nice to congratulate the bronze and silver medallists,  but the reality is that we celebrate the "gold medal". We want to hear our national anthem played and we want to see our athletes stand on the top level of the podium. All in all, there were some extraordinarily inspirational and emotional times during the period from February 12 to 28, 2010 that touched the hearts of all Canadians.

   Nevertheless, despite all of the great moments that occurred during the actual competitions, I doubt very much that the Olympic Spirit that we felt during the games would not have been quite as intense if not for the 106 day Olympic Torch Relay that began on October 30, 2009 in Victoria British Columbia and ended during the Opening Ceremonies on February 12, 2010. I would suggest that the key to the tremendous success of the 2010 Olympics was the decision to make this the longest torch run in history to be contained within the Host Country. The torch was carried a total of 45,000 kilometers through over 1000 communities in 106 days by over 12,000 individual "heroes" allowing over 90% of the population of Canada to be within a one hour drive of experiencing the Olympic flame. The Olympic Spirit was nurtured across this vast country and culminated with Sidney Crosby's overtime game-winning goal. The roar was felt all around the world, but it was started in Olympia Greece on October 22, 2009 and continued to build once it started its journey across Canada.

   In the days following the closing ceremonies, I have yet to hear one comment or news story about the Olympic Torch Relay. All of our attention has been focused on the performance of the athletes and in particular on Sidney Crosby's single goal. I wonder what things would have been like if the United States would have won that last game? Personally, I will soon forget the accomplishments of the athletes during the Olympic games. I'll remember the game winning goal and I will remember that we won 14 gold medals. But I will soon forget the competition that created the euphoria. However, there is something that I will never forget and I would like to share it with you right now.

   I have always believed that we may over time forget the names of people we meet in our life, but we will never forget how they made us feel. This was n ever more evident than when the journey of life that my wife and I are on lead us to Barrie on October 22, 2009, helping our son Warren, and Cindi Meyer move into their brand new house. While we were taking a break from moving in the furniture we found ourselves watching the live broadcast of the Olympic Flame being lit in Olympia Greece during a special ceremony to hand the torch to Canadian officials. We took advantage of the opportunity to get a photo of Cindi beside the television. Cindi, you see, was one of the 12,000 people who had been selected to carry the torch. At that time, I could sense that this was more than just a picture of Cindi in front of her television, but I still had no idea just how much it would eventually come to mean. This was indeed a very significant moment in a story that was about to unfold over the next several months. I wondered silently how many other families of the 12,000 torch bearers were doing exactly the same as us. For us, this television broadcast meant a lot more than we could ever imagine.

   All during the Christmas season, when people asked me what I was going to be doing during the holidays, I told them that we were going to be in Barrie watching Cindi carry the torch in Alliston, about 40 minutes south of where they now lived. The responses I received were quite remarkable. Each and every person had an expression of what can be best described as "Wow!" They were sincerely happy that I would be experiencing such an important event and they couldn't say enough about how lucky I was to be so close to someone was going to be an official "Olympic Torch-Bearer". I could sense that they felt their trips to exotic places around the world for the holidays were nowhere as impressive as what I was going to be doing. This happened over and over again and I began to feel a deep sense of pride and anticipation. I began to feel the importance of the event. I was actually going to be with my family witnessing Cindi carry the Olympic torch. There were going to be a lot of torch parties going on over the land, and we would be attending one of them. It was actually quite exciting but I still had no idea of what was to come.

   We even started to follow the Olympic Torch on the CTV web site. You were able to see each individual carry the torch over their stretch of 300 meters, and even though we were not there in person, I could still feel that sense of pride and anticipation building up inside me, knowing that the flame was making its way to Alliston where on December 29, we would see Cindi doing exactly what these people were doing on television. As the day approached, there was a special feeling that came over me that I couldn't quite explain.

   When the big day finally came we crowded into our vehicles to drive the 40 minutes from Warren's house to the spot where Cindi would begin her run. Warren and Cindi along with her children went ahead because the Olympic Torch Bearers had to gather in advance for final instructions at a central meeting place.

   There was no way in the world that I could have ever imagined how I was going to feel later on that afternoon. But I will admit that I felt different. I can't describe it, but there was something different inside of me. It was as if I knew that I was going to be part of something special.

   When we arrived in Alliston we positioned ourselves beside the pole where Cindi would be dropped off by the Torch-Bearer Bus that went out in advance of the relay runners. Each torch-bearer had a designated drop-off spot along the route. Warren told us where Cindi's drop-off spot would be and he was there when we arrived. We found ourselves sort of in the middle of a stretch of the street which was between a corner with traffic lights and a section of the downtown that was barricaded to keep traffic out for a good hour prior to the run. Because of this, very few spectators were in the spot when Cindi was dropped off. There was a crowd at the corner with the traffic lights and there was a crowd gathering on the other side of the barricade. You can see in the photo below as Cindi was let out of the bus that there were not many people around her at the time. 

   This was the moment we had been waiting for since the day we found out that Cindi was one of the 12,000 persons selected to carry the torch.

   What happened during the next fifteen minutes was a truly defining moment in my life, as I am sure it became in the life of many of the people who were around me that day. Almost immediately, dozens of people began inching their way towards Cindi. They saw her get out of the bus and they wanted to get an up-close look at this "celebrity" whom we simply called Cindi. 

   We took a picture of Cindi and Warren with her two children, Brittney and Austin and then the flood-gates opened and everybody surrounded Cindi asking politely if she would mind them getting their picture taken with her and the torch. It was if the picture we took released something inside the spectators. It was as if they felt "connected" to Cindi. You could tell how proud and thrilled these "strangers" were to be allowed to stand beside a real, live Olympic Torch Bearer and have someone take their picture. They touched the torch gently and with reverence. 

   At that moment in time, Cindi was the most famous person in the world to the people in the crowd, especially to the youngsters. Wayne Gretsky could have walked by and the people would still have wanted to get their picture with Cindi. This was Cindi's moment and Cindi was absolutely gracious. She was anticipating one of the most important moments in her life, and yet she gratefully obliged everyone by standing there and letting them get their picture so that they could put it in a treasured place to remind them of the event for the rest of their lives. You could tell that everyone who touched the torch and stood beside Cindi felt that she was somehow representing "ordinary Canadians" and that this stretch of the run was being done for them.

   I stood back and watched as my granddaughters, Hailee (5) on the left and Hannah (3) on the right went up and hugged their Aunt Cindi. They put their hands on the torch. They had heard us talking about this for some time and they too, even as young as they were, could understand that this was something very special. When they get older they will appreciate the significance of the event, but even now they somehow knew. This was the same Aunt Cindi who they had been with that morning, but somehow Aunt Cindi was going to be different for a while. She was going to be doing something very special and they could feel it just like everyone else in the crowd.

   Keep in mind that this all happened in less than 10 or 15 minutes from the time the bus dropped Cindi off by herself at her designated spot until the flame was delivered to her and she would carry it for the next leg in the 45,000 kilometre journey. It was truly remarkable and I can honestly say I have never felt quite the same as I did that day. I can't even describe how I felt. I was so proud to be there to witness the moment with my family and my granddaughters.  I was also so happy for the dozens of people who would be able to tell their family and friends that they had their picture taken with an Olympic Torch Bearer. You could tell that they were moved and very appreciative of the way Cindi treated them. I was so proud of Cindi for allowing everyone to share a little piece of this moment that they would take away with them forever.

   And then the "flame" arrived and was transferred to Cindi. The crowd watched, cameras flashing, and Cindi stood alone for a few seconds in the middle of the street, taking it all in and realizing the significance of the event. Now it was her turn to accept responsibility for bringing the flame on the next stage of its long journey. This was the flame that we had seen on television on October 22, 2009. It was the flame we were going to watch on February 12, 2010 when the Olympic cauldron was lit in Vancouver. Everyone in the street watched and felt in their hearts a sense of pride in being a Canadian that for most of us we had never experienced with such intensity until that moment. Cindi was carrying that torch for everyone on the street and indeed everyone in Canada.

   As Cindi ran with the torch through the crowded street in downtown Alliston, you could sense that each and every person there was running with her. She was carrying much more than a torch with a flame. She was carrying the hopes and dreams of a nation. This was not about athletic competition and gold medals. This was much, much more and the sight of Cindi with that torch would somehow change the life of everyone there in a very positive way forever.

   That is why the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games meant so much to us. That is why over 26 million people turned on their television sets to watch at least a part of the gold medal hockey game on the afternoon of February 28, 2010. We watched the opening ceremonies; we shared in the highs and lows of the athletes during their competition in sports that many of us have never seen in real life; and we experienced the unbelievable feeling when Crosby scored the goal as the ultimate moment in the games. We then wound down during the opening ceremonies and we now move forward in our individual lives as proud Canadians. Life is returning to normal.

   Millions of people experienced first-hand the Olympic Flame as it was carried by "ordinary" people like Cindi Meyer. There are almost 12,000 "ordinary" people who enjoyed a moment of fame while they took their turn under the flame. There were also some famous people who carried the torch, but the people on the street couldn't stand beside and put their arm around the famous people. They couldn't get their picture with the famous people. But they could get their picture with the thousands of Torch Bearers like Cindi. The people like Cindi Meyer were the real heroes of the 2010 games. They were the ones who generated the Olympic Spirit and who fueled the National pride we all felt when Crosby scored his historic goal. 

   Cindi's Olympic torch will stand in a place of honour in Warren and Cindi's house. Each time I visit I will be reminded of the feeling I had on December 29 when I saw all of those "ordinary" Canadians swelling up with pride on that small street in Alliston. I will be reminded that this same feeling was felt by millions of Canadians across this country who experienced the same thing almost 12,000 times during the 106 day journey. They all have fond memories of the torch run and they also are being reminded when they look at pictures or whenever they meet someone who is introduced to them in the future as "one of the 2010 Olympic Torch Bearers". 

   It is a good feeling knowing that our country is a much better place to live as a result of the 2010 Winter Olympics and it's all because of thousands of ordinary people like Cindi Meyer who carried lit our Canadian Spirit with a small flame, 300 meters at a time. We will forget the names of most of athletes who brought us so much joy during the 17 days of the Olympic Games.  The people who had their picture taken with Cindi Meyer on December 29 on the small street in Alliston will not remember her name. Nor will the millions of others who had a chance to get up close to the thousands of other torch bearers and who experienced the thrill of watching the torch make its way across this country. But I will guarantee you one thing; everyone will remember how they felt when they saw the torch being carried. They will remember the feeling that came over them when they were in the presence of the real heroes of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games.

   Have a good week!

Robert Kirwan, OCT., B.A. (Math), M.A. (Education)
Independent Education, Training & Career Development Consultant
The Greater Sudbury Learning Clinic

Whether you are a student, a parent, a teacher, a grandparent, or just a person who is concerned education, I am sure that you will agree that we are living in an era where self-development and life-long learning is more than just a passing trend. It is my pleasure to bring you some of my favourite editorials, reflections and stories as food for thought that may in some way inspire or motivate you to taking positive steps that will lead you to maximizing your true potential and help you enjoy the best quality of life possible. I hope you enjoy the three editorials provided below. When you have time, please select one of the buttons above for more inspirational reflections on strategies that may make a difference in your life.