By Pepper Parr
June 17, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
If you live in Burlington the main thing you hear about the Pan Am Games is that they are taking place in Hamilton and the people who run the province want us to reduce our time on the QEW by 20%.
The hotel that was to be built on Lakeshore Road for the games hasn’t even gotten as far as a hole in the ground.
Our piece of the Pan Am Games action looks as if it is going to be limited to having one of our very own carry the torch from the Discovery Centre to the pier – 200 metres.
The Torch is going to arrive in Burlington at the intersection of Brant and Leighland and be carried down Brant Street, cutting through a couple of local streets, until it gets handed over to Ashley Worobec, a local chiropractor who is a total fitness advocate and in superb shape.
At press time Ashley didn’t have her uniform yet but she is nevertheless pumped.
Worobec’s parents are flying in from Calgary to watch their daughter run that 200 metres – the plans are to have hundreds of people line the route.
The sports organizations in Burlington have been asked to encourage their members to line the route and cheer on our runner.
Parts of Brant Street will be closed to traffic as the Torch is brought to Spencer Smith Park in what Denise Beard, Manager of something with Parks and Recreation, described as a “rolling closure” – the security will lead and follow the runner.
Worobec says there is a “shroud of mystery” surrounding the proceedings. ”I get picked up at 3:45 and get taken to the hotel where I get my uniform and then they tell me what I am doing.”
“I know that I will be handing the torch off to Mark Oldershaw”, Canada’s Olympic paddling hero. “We all end up at the Sound of Music stage where the Mayor is giving a speech.”
Worobec isn’t sure if she gets to keep her uniform but she will be able to buy one of the torches. “I don’t get to keep the one I run with – but I am allowed to buy one – for $550. We are going to put up in the lobby of the clinic.”
No one is really sure how many people are going to be following the event – it takes place right in the middle of the last Sound of Music weekend – so there will probably be large crowds.
Worobec expects to start her 200 metre run at 5:45 on Friday at the Discovery Centre.
Worobec knows that she will be running along the Naval Promenade and thinks she is going to end up somewhere near the gazebo.
Her husband is going to be buying a half a dozen white balloons he will fill with Helium “so I can see where my parents are.”
Sounds like a lot of fun – and very disorganized.