CALGARY’S SPIRIT SHINES THROUGH AT PARADE
Wearing a plaid shirt and a dark cowboy hat, Douglas Jackson stood just aside from the crowds lining the Calgary Stampede parade route, smiling at floats, marching bands and the children bumping into him.
Two weeks ago, he nearly lost his home to raging flood waters. On Friday, he was in no way surprised the city was ready to put on a parade.
“We had enough time to get it together,” said Jackson, who added the day marked his 50th time watching the parade. “I’m proud, but I knew it would happen.”
Jackson wasn’t alone celebrating the spirit of a city that came together to make it all happen.
Just two weeks after flooding forced 100,000 southern Albertans from their homes, the 101st Calgary Stampede is in full swing, come hell or high water, as this year’s slogan promises.
Friday’s parade — the kickoff to Stampede 2013 — started at 9:05 a.m. with fireworks.
The roaring, waving crowd that welcomed parade grand marshal and Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield was a show of the city’s strength, he said.
Despite having the honour once before, in 2001, Hadfield said leading the kickoff to Stampede this year was remarkably different.
“I think the difference is how Calgarians and Albertans across the province have risen through the adversity and still be able to celebrate life together,” said Hadfield, who wore custom leather cowboy boots emblazoned with his initials, a mission patch for the Canadian Space Agency and a red maple leaf on the back.
“I’m really pleased to be part of it.”
A quarter of a million parade-watchers were expected Friday morning. Stampede officials didn’t have an official tally prior to press deadlines.
Before Calgary was hit with massive flooding that shut downtown and swallowed Stampede Park June 20, the biggest challenge for organizers was topping last year’s centennial celebration.
But making sure nothing could stop the 10-day celebration from happening turned out to be Stampede president Bob Thompson’s chief goal.
“It’s almost surreal, really. Here were are standing on the parade route. We would have been standing in four feet of water only 10 days ago. I’m touched, if anything,” said Thompson as he started down the parade route on horseback.
“I’m thrilled at the energy I’m feeling on the parade. I’m thrilled that our citizens are going to rise up out of this mud,” he said. “And we are going to have a great Stampede.”
There was one hitch in the morning event when a teenager was bucked off a horse spooked by fireworks at the parade’s start.
The girl was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
With whoops of yahoo and megawatt smiles, parade participants and spectators seemed more than happy to blow off steam after two weeks of too much water and even more worry.
Linda Mamona and her granddaughter, Kira, left their chairs on the side of 9th Avenue overnight to nab a prime spot to watch the parade.
It was Mamona’s 59th Stampede parade and her granddaughter’s 15th.
Mamona’s eyes filled with tears as she described how her family’s house in Bowness was flooded. It meant a lot, she said, that Stampede still came together.
“It feels good. It feels really good,” she said.
Sonia Simpson watched the parade with her daughter, Priya, who was kicking her legs in her stroller.
Simpson lives in Ramsay, which was not evacuated during the flood, but essentially turned into a “ghost town,” she said. Seeing everyone come together for Stampede has been unreal, she said.
“We did it. We pulled it off in spite of everything. Come hell or high water, we were going to do it,” she said, gesturing to her official 101st Stampede T-shirt.
Brian Rogerson came all the way from the Canary Islands — off the west coast of North Africa — to attend the Stampede. It had been his lifelong dream to see the rodeo, take in the parade and to explore the Rocky Mountains, he said, a hat perched on his white head of hair.
He bought his tickets last December. When he saw footage of the Calgary floods on the news back home, he thought he’d made a terrible mistake after waiting all those years. But then he found out the Stampede was still a go.
“And when the sun’s come out today, what more could you ask for? It’s a lovely parade,” he said.
He had also been quite concerned about the well-being of Calgarians, he said. A friend of a friend in Calgary had been filling him in on the damage, evacuations and lives lost.
“The main thing for us was not the show going on, but whether all those people were OK and could get back in their homes. It was more important
But it’s good that this has come together TOURIST GAVIN DONNISON
than a parade and a couple of days holiday.”
Gavin Donnison and his wife, Maureen, know all too well just how devastating floods can be.
The pair, who travelled from Queensland, Australia, to see the Stampede, suffered “heaps of damage” when floods back home last January ravaged their property, Donnison said.
“We felt for the people here as we’d been through it over there,” he said.
“But it’s good that this has come together. It’s good for the town. It will help with the rebuilding.”
More than 700 horses and 4,000 participants hoofed it down the five-kilometre route, and took about two hours to pass.
There were 115 entries listed: 15 bands, 36 floats, 40 horse entries and 24 miscellaneous entries.
The city ended its state of emergency a day ahead of the annual Stampede, which runs until July 14.
Calgarians and visitors alike exploded with wild applause as Mayor Naheed Nenshi, Calgary Emergency Management Agency director Bruce Burrell and a troupe of city flood responders took to the route.
“The spirit of our city and province cannot be washed away,” read a banner carried by marchers.
Two weeks ago, Nenshi watched as the same downtown street disappeared under water.
“It’s pretty poignant this morning, and I think people are really, really ready for this,” said Nenshi, riding the horse Garfield for the third year.
“The fact that we’re here today is remarkable.”