On Wednesday December 23^rd, 2009 I experienced an event of a lifetime. Ricoh the company I work for and a sponsor to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics appointed me to carry the Flame as 1 of 20 spots allowed to the company. For me it started as a great honor to be able to carry this symbol of sport because I have been involved with sports all my life and now through volunteer positions. I am presently still coaching soccer and the President of the Manitoba Table Tennis Association.

I arrived in Amherstburg Ontario and started meeting the other Torch Bearers during an orientation and on the shuttle waiting for our turn where we all told a little story of what this meant to us. There was a wide variety of people from Students, Refugees, Air force Veterans, Olympians, World Champions and me an average citizen of Selkirk Manitoba. I started to feel that this was more then a just symbol of sport as people told their stories of what it meant to them. It began to feel more like this flame was a symbol of friendship, unity, and success. As I met with people on the side of the road waiting for my turn to run with the torch it was amazing to see how the people of this smaller town felt now that the torch was there. The gratitude and admiration I received topped out when someone asked me to hold their baby for a photo op.

On doing some research about the whole meaning of the flame and the Olympics when I returned home I came across this on a website: (http://www.casey.vic.gov.au/olympic/article.asp?Item=923)

The aims of the Olympic Movement area:

• To promote the development of those physical and moral qualities which are the basis of sport
• To educate young people through sport in a spirit of better understanding between each other, and of friendship, thereby helping to build a better and more peaceful world
• To spread the Olympic principles throughout the world, thereby creating international goodwill
• To bring together athletes of the world in the great four-yearly sports festival, the Olympic Games.

One of the major aims of the Olympism is "to improve the human race, not only physically, but to give it a greater nobility of spirit, and to strengthen understanding and friendship amongst peoples."

I held the Olympic Flame for 4 minutes but the entire torch bearing experience that day lasted about 4 hours and I will never forget it or how it changed me.

As this event comes into your area you must take the opportunity to see it and be part of this amazing transformation. You will see and feel something that you may never experience again as you realize that the Olympics are not just about a hockey game or who is the best in the world but about Unity, Friendship, and Peace.

Daniel Racicot, Olympic Torch Bearer