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Coun. Bill McNulty (pictured) and Richmond Sports Council chair Jim Lamond are hoping to bring the 2020 BC Senior Games to Richmond. The city last hosted the Games in 2009.
Photo by Don Fennell
Richmond set to bid on 2020 BC Seniors Games
Plans are afoot for the possible return of
the B.C. Seniors Games to Richmond.
Coun. Bill McNulty tabled a motion at the
city’s Parks and Recreation meeting Wednesday. The Games were last held here in
2009.
McNulty and Richmond Sports Council chair Jim
Lamond, both longtime supporters of sport locally, are prepared to lead a bid
for the 2020 Games. The Games would be held in either late August or early
September of that year.
“Richmond Sports Council and the Richmond
Games Society would be co-hosts of the Games,” said McNulty, who along with
Lamond are working on a presentation to formally request city council’s
support.
A bid package, expressing Richmond’s wish to
host the Games, must be submitted to the B.C. Games Society president by June
28, 2018.
McNulty said the Games would be run entirely
by volunteers, with the support of city staff.
“The Games will mobilize our volunteer force,”
he said. “We’ll have 2,000 volunteers. Most communities don’t have that
opportunity. We’ll have young and old working side by side, representing a nice
blend of intergenerational co-operation.”
The 2009 Games turned a profit, from which a
legacy fund of about $69,000 was established. The largest Games ever, they
attracted 3,800 athletes aged 55 and older from throughout the province.
“In 2009 we got our seniors moving,” McNulty
said. “We have everything from darts, whist and bridge to pickle ball, swimming
and track and field. That’s what I like about these Games, you don’t have to be
a star athlete or in the prime of fitness. I may go in and throw the javelin.”
McNulty is envisioning an even bigger, more
successful Games in 2020.
“In five years, 50 per cent of our population
is going to be over 50, so we’re an aging community as well,” he said. “I think
hosting the B.C. Seniors Games fits in with our goals of being the longest
living and healthiest people. We’ll even have events for 80-year-olds,
accentuating the masters programs. Those athletes are already going beyond
where people used to stop competing.”
McNulty said the potential economic spinoff
from four days of activities could generate in excess of $4 million.
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