|
|
|||||
|
|||||
| Path: Main Street : NewsWeek : Archive : Coffee with Cam Articles : Article |
This is an archive of CharityVillage NewsWeek.
To find a word on the page, use your browser's "find" feature (CTRL-F
or CMD-F).
Please note: While we ensure that all links and e-mail addresses are
accurate at their publishing date, the quick-changing nature of the
web means that some links to other web sites and e-mail addresses may
no longer be accurate.
To view other articles in the archive, use our Chronological Index.
Name that smile
By Cam Tait
June 12, 2006
The smile brought back everything. It was a television commercial that likely aired throughout Canada. The majority of the spot - one has to believe it was more than 58 seconds - was about the nature of the event, its history, its successes, and its future goals. Then, as the camera secured a very close head shot, there it was: The Smile.
My mind quickly hit rewind to one of the first times I ever saw The Smile. It was Christmas, 1979. The Edmonton-based Alberta Northern Lights wheelchair basketball team, just a year in existence, hosted an international tournament. But, honestly, they weren't very good. So they brought in some reinforcements from the Vancouver Cable Cars and The Smile was one of them. Just a few days after Santa had cleared out of town that year, The Smile was doing one of the things he loved the most - quarterbacking an offence on the basketball court.
Over the years, The Smile and I would exchange pleasantries throughout the west coast of North America when we would meet at wheelchair basketball tournaments. But really, it was over a three-hour breakfast in San Jose, California - The Smile stuck me with the bill, as usual - that I heard a story that would last me a lifetime. Over countless cups of coffee and glasses of water, I came to realize that The Smile was going to make his exclamation mark on the world through blood, sweat and tears.
The Smile was still around one night in March of 1985 in Tumwater, Washington - just on the other side of the border from Vancouver. A chartered bus of happy Edmonton wheelchair basketball players stopped at a small motel to wake him up - heck, it was only 10:15pm PST. The Smile was on his third day of what would become a two-year odyssey that would touch thousands of people. The Smile chatted with his Edmonton friends for a good 30 minutes before retiring, in anticipation of a 5am wake-up call.
I didn't see The Smile again until August of 1986 when he greeted Canadians on a windy, cold day on the very eastern tip of Cape Spear, Newfoundland. As a reporter, I shared five days with The Smile as he made his way west toward, perhaps, the biggest challenge yet...the Canadian winter. One poignant memory I will forever have of The Smile - and, to be honest, he was crying - was on a winter day during the very beginning of 1987, just a nudge east of Thunder Bay, Ontario, with the now-famous Terry Fox statue in the background.
I also had the honour of being in the crowd at a jammed packed B.C. Place when The Smile made a hero's entrance into Vancouver in 1987. And I was even more honoured when I went back to Vancouver a few months later to see The Smile get married.
Over all the years, the heartaches, the disappointments, the victories - and believe me, there have been many - and the road yet to be traveled, The Smile has always been there. And chances are, smiles were in abundance across Canada last Sunday as many communities set their wheels in motion for an important cause - something that The Smile is still promoting 20 years later. And as the television spot showed, a smile can be someone's hallmark.
It would be too easy to reveal who The Smile is. If you think you already know, send me an e-mail. And include your own thoughts or memories of The Smile. We'll cover it from ear to ear next week.
Cam Tait is a sports reporter for the Edmonton Journal. He covered charitable issues for almost 20 years. Thoughts, comments, ideas or a simple hello are welcomed at cam@charityvillage.com.
Opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CharityVillage.com®.
|
|||
