The sparse attendance at the Cottonwood Community Centre live site viewing of the Canada versus United States Olympic hockey game Sunday evening (Feb. 21) didn’t make the game any less exciting. As several children played hide-and-seek in the community centre’s great room, half a dozen adults paid rapt attention to the game on the large screen that saw the U.S. defeat Canada by a score of 5 – 3. As the game neared its end around 6:30 p.m., the audience had grown to about a dozen adults.
The 4:40 p.m. start time may have meant that many people had chosen to stay home or drop by their favourite restaurant or bar to watch the game. Nonetheless, Paul Cumin of Pemberton said he had attended a number of live site viewings at the community centre, most of which had low attendance. He did note, however, that the Opening Ceremony on Feb. 12 had seen a packed house. And Paula Sherman, who works at the centre, noted earlier that many people had stayed right to the end of the Opening Ceremony.
The fact that entry to the live site is free has been a boon to some. Leah Noble of Pemberton said that “if you’ve got no money to spend and you’ve got kids,” the community centre is a great place to be. Noble was attending Sunday night’s hockey game with her two children. “You can get the best seats in the house right here.”
Noble said she was enjoying the Olympics. “Before the opening ceremonies, there was so much negativity. It’s been uphill since then,” she said. Noble added, “It was pretty neat the way the Four Host First Nations were represented” at the Opening Ceremony.
Noble said she also attended the pow wow in Mount Currie that was held last weekend (Feb. 20 and 21) to celebrate the athletes. She estimated about 50 German athletes attended the event. ‘It was pretty awesome.”
Melanie Drouin of Sherbrooke, Que. also stopped by to watch Sunday’s game. A volunteer event host at Creekside in Whistler during the games, Drouin is staying in Pemberton.
She said her experience has been “amazing. I really enjoy it. I am meeting amazing people from all over the world.” A university student, Drouin flew to B.C. Feb. 10 to take on her volunteer position. This is her second visit to B.C. and her first to the Pemberton/ Whistler area.
Several people at the community centre had been in Whistler to see country singer Corb Lund of Alberta on Friday (Feb.19). “Half of Pemberton was there,” said Melanie Cumin, also on hand to watch the hockey game.
Pemberton resident Margo Vaughan was at the community centre with her toddler for Sunday’s hockey game and said she also stopped by to watch the Opening Ceremony. “I wish I had daycare and cable. I would have liked to watch more,” she said.
Vaughan said she was also able to watch some of the luge events in Whistler with her family.
Live site viewing of the 2010 Olympics is free at the Cottonwood Community Centre through February. Upcoming events include men’s gold medal hockey on Sunday (Feb. 28) at 12:15 p.m. The site will also be open for the Closing Ceremony, which begins at 6 p.m. For details, call the community centre at (604) 894-2340.
