Chicago 2016 Hits the Streets and Schools
Celebrating One Year to Copenhagen with Energy and Spirit

 

October 2 marked the one year countdown until the International Olympic Committee decides on who should host the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic games. To celebrate this important date, Chicago 2016 volunteers, including staff and Olympians, hit Chicago neighborhoods with countdown clocks.  I, along with Andy Angelos, joined the groups for a day of Chicago fun and spirit.

At 6:30 am, we met at the Aon Center, headquarters of Chicago 2016.  We received our assignments, introduced ourselves to our fellow ‘van mates’ and were off.  My group’s first stop was Greektown.  There we were on Halsted and Monroe. The sun was peeking up over the Loop, we were a bit chilly and were armed with countdown clocks.

That’s when the fun began.

We split up in different groups and stopped people on the street, in their cars, during breakfast and even in the midst of constructing a new building - all to spread the word about October 2, 2009.  Our group did everything from chasing down cyclists, hopping on buses to stopping Streets and Sanitation trucks to hand out the clocks. 

I enjoyed the clock giveaways, but I enjoyed my group even more. We had a diverse bunch of Chicagoans, including Olympian Gary Morgan. Gary is an Olympic race walker and competed in the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea.  He joined us for the entire day and even brought the Olympic Torch he carried through Detroit, Michigan.  After our morning in Greektown, our next and final stop was to finish the students at Pershing West Elementary.

Our Chicago 2016 One Year team was greeted by Principal Cheryl Watkins. Did you know that Mrs. Watkins was once a gymnast? Yep.  Her Olympic dreams continue as she works on various programs at Pershing West to help get one of her own students to compete in the Olympics one day. One of those activities is Archery. Pershing West is the only middle school in the Midwest with an Archery team. Look for a detailed look at this team in a later post.

Principal Watkins and Assistant Principal Anderson walked us through the halls and classrooms of Pershing West.  Gary Morgan visited each classroom, talked about his own Olympic experiences and presented the teachers with Countdown Clocks.  Each class was excited, respectful and inquisitive behind Gary’s background, his training and the overall Olympic movement. 

I could have stayed at Pershing West all day long. The energy from the students and Principal Watkins was contagious.

After the last clock was distributed and we said our last goodbyes to Pershing West, our group piled into our One Year van and drove back to the Aon Center. We were together from 6:30 am to 10:30.  In four hours, I made a connection with strangers - all around the potential of Chicago winning the 2016 Olympic bid.  

If a small group of us can do this in four hours, imagine what a whole city can do with more time, more volunteers and even more energy? NBC5 also did a fun story on our adventures. 

Let the countdown begin!!