Final Community Medal Bearer for Rick Hansen 25th Anniversary Relay named

Courtesy of the City of Williams Lake:

The Rick Hansen End of Day Celebration Committee is pleased to announce that Horsefly resident Bruce MacLeod has been chosen as the Final Community Medal Bearer. Mr. MacLeod will carry the medal to the stage during the End of Day Celebration when the Rick Hansen 25th Anniversary Relay arrives in Williams Lake March 25th, 2012.

“Bruce MacLeod is a dedicated volunteer in his community and Horsefly, and is an excellent representative of our community,” says Councillor Surinderpal Rathor, who is the City’s Accessibility Committee’s representative on the End of Day Committee. “Not only does he work to increase accessibility – he promotes his hometown and volunteers for a long list of community projects and organizations. We are so proud to have him be the final community medal bearer when Rick Hansen himself comes to Williams Lake.”

“This was a complete surprise to me, but I am both honored and humbled to be even considered for anything. Nothing I have ever achieved in life before or after my accident on December 16, 1981 has been accomplished without a network of support from many different sources,” says MacLeod. “I look forward to meeting Rick, who is after all the real reason for the relay, and whose accomplishments are responsible for this 25th year celebration.”

There is still an opportunity for local residents to participate in the Relay, by entering the contest at www.rickhansenrelay.com for a chance to carry the Rick Hansen Medal for a 250-metre leg of the relay. The relay, which began in Cape Spear, Newfoundland, on August 24, and ends in Vancouver May 22, 2012, commemorates Hansen’s Man in Motion world tour 25 years ago.

Attached to this release is Mr. MacLeod’s nomination form from local residents Joan Sorley and Linda Bartsch, and below are expanded comments from Mr. MacLeod.

View that here (nomination form) and here (expanded comments from Mr. MacLeod)