A parade that includes hockey gamers and veterans ought to have rolled by way of downtown Kelowna on Thursday.
Grand plans for the beginning of the 2020 Memorial Cup, which was to have been held in Kelowna earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic pressured its cancellation, included a vibrant opening ceremony at Stuart Park on the downtown waterfront.
After a salute to the women and men of the Canadian Armed Forces, the Memorial Cup was to have been introduced onto the rostrum on the south finish of the park, hoisted excessive for all to see.
A second of silence was deliberate in reminiscence of all those that’ve misplaced their lives whereas serving the nation, after which a number of confetti cannons had been to have been set off, showering the gang.
“The parks division cringed on the thought. However by no means concern, the confetti is environmentally-friendly,” Wendy Falkowski, who was to have been chair of the opening ceremonies, stated Thursday.
Additionally Thursday, members of the ill-fated organizing committee launched the video which helped safe Kelowna the fitting to host the Memorial Cup throughout a multi-city bidding course of in September 2018.
To view the video, go to https://www.dropbox.com/s/31i0he87pj3bl86/SWET-Kelowna-MemCup2020-D4b.mp4?dl=0
The round-robin event, that includes the winners of the three Canadian junior hockey leagues plus the host Kelowna Rockets, was to have begun Thursday and continued till the championship sport on Could 31.
It was estimated the Memorial Cup would have had an financial impression of between $10 million and $15 million, which was a part of the rationale behind town’s choice to contribute $225,000 towards the staging of the occasion.
Tom Dyas, who headed up the Memorial Cup organizing committee, stated large crowds – inside Prospera Place but additionally at pubs and eating places, and at a Waterfront Park live performance that includes nation star Brett Kissel – would have been a enjoyable and dynamic facet to the event.
“There is a feeling you get being round mates and amongst different folks at a sports activities occasion or a competition,” Dyas stated. “We crave that connection and naturally it isn’t there in the intervening time.”
Dyas and about 20 different volunteers had been to assemble for a bunch photograph shoot, whereas conserving their distance after all, final evening at Prospera Place.
“It will be a souvenir,” he stated. “For what might need been.”