The NAC is one of several Centretown organizations that’s celebrating the Winter Olympics.
Despite some of the controversy surrounding the Sochi Winter Olympics, St. Anthony elementary school, the Canadian War Museum and the National Arts Centre are each celebrating sport and achievement in different ways this month.
As the games unfold across the ocean, Centretown residents have a chance to engage in the history and spirit behind the Olympics.
“It’s not only about the sport,” says Sandra Troccoli, a Grade 4 and 5 teacher at St. Anthony, a Catholic elementary school on Booth Street. “It’s living your dream and going for what you want.”
Earlier this month the students gathered for a mini version of the opening ceremonies.
A torch made of Bristol board and tissue paper was paraded around the gym and every class from kindergarten to Grade 6 came up with a cheer for Canada and its Olympians.
In the weeks following, students have been nominating their peers for bronze, silver and gold medals in the qualities of fairness, respect and leadership, says Troccoli.
“If they see one of their classmates being a good leader or playing fair they’re putting their name in a ballot box,” explains Troccoli.
While the school encourages students to grow in sport and character, the Canadian War Museum looks to heroes of the past.
The museum is showcasing a jersey worn by a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force Flyers hockey team.
The team, made up entirely of amateur players who were serving or retired members of the post-war air force, won the gold medal in the 1948 Winter Olympic Games in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
“We thought this was a great opportunity to bring something out which connects to military history, but also connects to what’s on people’s minds,” says Tony Glen, director of collections at the museum.
The jersey belonged to number 18, Wing Commander Hubert Brooks, who was shot down and taken prisoner in Germany during the Second World War, before escaping to Poland in 1943.
However, like St. Anthony, the war museum is doing more than honouring the Olympic tradition.
Glen explains the goal of hanging the knit jersey in the museum lobby is to make Canada’s military past relevant and exciting today.
At the National Arts Centre, Olympic history is life-sized, as the main lobby stage features a mannequin goalie guarding a rust-red net, with vintage skis and skates propped nearby.
Couches and tables surround the stage, inviting patrons to comfortably watch the live coverage of Olympic events being played in both French and English.
The Olympics are shown before and after every dance, theatre or music show, says Jennifer Hirst, marketing manager at the NAC. She says that the arts venue is also asking patrons to “paint the NAC red” by wearing red clothing when attending performances at the centre.
Mike Caluori, head of properties for English Theatre at the NAC, says he set up the stage in an interactive way.
He explains that people can put on a cardboard goalie mask and pose with the mannequin in front of the net for photos.
Caluori also created a “book of souvenirs,” featuring clippings and information on all the Ottawa-born athletes who have participated in the Winter Games.
“We’re just trying to keep it subtle, and let people discover,” says Caluori.
At the museum, Glen says that remembering Olympic stories of team spirit is inspiring.
“It’s sort of the story of ordinary people doing extraordinary things, isn’t it?”