Active lifestyle earns youth chance to be torch bearer

Twenty youth in the Ottawa-Carleton area have a chance to be part of a history-making event in 2010, thanks to the efforts of a young First Nations role model. Beverley Sunday, a health promotion co-ordinator at the Odawa Native Friendship Centre, is spearheading the campaign to get young people from the Capital Region involved in the Olympic torch relay to Vancouver.
As the Aboriginal spokesperson for Sogo Active, Sunday is working to help First Nations youth improve personal health and develop leadership skills. Sogo Active is a program backed by Coca-Cola Ltd. designed to encourage youth age 13 to 19 to adopt healthy lifestyles. Sogo Active has partnered with ParticipAction, a not-for-profit corporation established in 1971 to promote healthy living in Canada.
Since the Olympic flame passes through every province and territory in Canada on its way to the 2010 winter games, Sunday believes First Nations youth should be well-represented on the 35,000 km journey. The monthly selection of torch bearers began in January 2009.
"The youth have to register with Sogo Active.com for the healthy living challenge," she said. "There are twenty positions in the area and we already have fifteen coming out to the youth meetings at the friendship centre."
Sunday is pleased to see a multi-cultural group of interested youth congregating at the Odawa Native Friendship Centre. The friendship centre, established in 1975, acts as the host organization for the Sogo Active program. Several of the participants are traditional dancers, she reports, and many activities are planned for the next few months including a trip to the Gathering of Nations Pow Wow in New Mexico mid-April.
"The First Nations youth have an opportunity to teach other non-Aboriginal youth about our culture," she suggested. "They can teach each other and achieve better health and develop life skills in the process."
At age twenty nine, Beverley Sunday has a wealth of experience to draw upon for her leadership role. Originally from the Goodfish (Whitefish) Lake First Nation in Alberta, she has witnessed many of the health challenges facing First Nation communities including diabetes and heart disease. Illnesses suffered by her own parents, and others, motivated her to get involved in health promotion and become a personal fitness trainer.
"I have seen the struggles; I have lived it," she confides. "But I believe in the power of positive attraction. I have overcome so much in my own personal and professional life, I just want to pass along the gratitude and the positive outlook to the youth."
For Sunday, the torch bearer opportunity is a good fit with the overall goal of healthy living.
"Participation in the torch relay will help to boost their self-esteem and let the youth realize that they can overcome barriers, they can do it. We are a strong people," she stresses.
She is aware that some First Nations groups are opposed to any support of the Vancouver event. According to the "NO2010" movement, the Olympics are a harmful and destructive force. Protesters see the games as a "corporate circus" backed by powerful elites in the real estate, construction, tourism and media industries.
Sunday is not deterred by the divergent points of view. She prefers to regard the Olympic torch as a "symbol of hard work" that will motivate young people to work equally hard.
"The torch is a good symbol for the youth," she said. "It represents the unity that they can accomplish and that's a great thing for the next generation."